In my last blog I recommended investing in land as the most secured investment in the world. I showed how it is so. I attempted to open your eyes on how to make millions of Cedis by simply buying and selling land. In this blog, I wish to let you get one thing straight about your property right. Just one thing!
In the beginning, God created us in his own image. He gave us the world. He said, "subdue the earth". God did not suggest that we subdue the earth. He commanded us. This very passage from the book of Genesis tells us that the right to property is a fundamental human right that can be traced to the very day we were created. And God did not deny us of this very vital right, the right to own. Who is man, therefore, to deny his or her neighbor of his right to property!
It is God-given. It should not be taken way. It must always be with us, in our waking and sleeping moments. We have the right to own all property that we ever wish for. It is like our right to air. Any attempt to take it is an attempt to take our livelihood.In fact, without a right to own property, we could do nothing that we have ever done.
Think of it. There is not a single war fought in the world that was not as a result of one party attempting to kill his neighbour's right to property. Think of America going to war with Iraq; it was the right to oil. Think of America going to war with Afghanistan; again it was the right to property. I am only giving these as examples because these wars had a global media reportage. But the point is that whenever one man tries to forcefully take another person's right to own property away, it turns bloody.
That is why Constitutions across the world secures property rights. Now, follow me to article 18 of the 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana. Let's read together. "Every person has the right to own property either alone or in association with others." Therefore, apart from the biblical basis that your right to own property is only human, the mother of all Ghanaian laws further makes it a guaranteed fundamental human right. Period!
In my subsequent blogs I will attempt to show you how all wealth and riches are as a result of the right to own property using land and property as examples. I will show you living examples of people and nations that wallowed in extreme poverty but have been lifted up because they are exercising their property rights, a right you also have and can put to use.
One hot sun bright day, a vulture found itself begging for a hiding place in a hole of a rabbit. When the rabbit asked the vulture what it was doing underground with its wings of feathers full of wind to fly from any danger, the vulture said that what was chasing it the skies could not provide refuge.
Like a vulture, when people are pushed to the wall they often do the unthinkable. They defy norms. They break traditions. And the law is expected to take its rightful course. The vulture and the rabbit storey often happen in the Ghanaian land market. This traditional land owner sold a piece of land to this man. When he went on the land another person came from nowhere claiming ownership of the same plot of land. The case was reported to the police. The police invited the chief in the process of investigating the matter. But he would not go, when the man informed him.
‘Why? Do you want to disgrace me? Don’t you know I am sitting on a Stool? Foolish man! I will take my land back for what you have done.’
But the man would not barge. He was bent on dragging him, if it was allowed, to the police station. It was a matter involving thousands of Cedis. He will not look on helplessly for his life time’s savings to go down the drain of a bad land deal. Adrenaline ran fast up and down his veins. His temper went high. Rage filled him. He went restless. And not knowing what to do he burst out.
‘And so what? If you are sitting on a Stool, why don’t you do what befits the status of your Stool. You sell me a plot of land and sell it again to another person. Is that what a chief is expected to do? You give me my land or my money back or you face the justice of the law. You do all these nefarious acts and you call yourself a chief. I wonder who put your buttocks on the Stool.’
A lot of people have the desire to invest in land but they face a lot difficulty. In their search for the best way to invest their money they get frustrated in the land market and they turn to stocks, corporate bonds, treasury bills, mutual funds and savings. Yes! All these are some of the ways to invest your money. But are they the finest investment options?
I believe in investing in stocks and mutual funds. I believe in putting money in your savings account. But I don’t take them as the best way to invest money. My own personal view is that the most secured way to invest in Ghana is to put your money in land despite the mess in the land market. You only have to be prudent, a little cautious. Rely on professional advice of land economists, estate managers, valuers and lawyers. Take their advice keenly.
Land prices are crazy in Ghana. It is unbelievable! Land prices gain not less than hundred percent in a year. Mutual funds can rarely give you that. Stocks can’t give you that. There is no bank that will give you hundred percent interest on your savings. No! There is no single bank. Only your investment in land can give you that.
Unfortunately, trading in the land market is not simple, transparent and straightforward as you may in the stock market. Basic land acquisition questions such as who is the true owner of a plot of land, does the person has the right to sell are difficult to answer by even experienced land buyers.
It is only in the land market that you can be threatened by a traditional landowner to take your legally acquired land back because you disgraced the landowner in public with barrage of insults for selling the same plot of land to another person. Insulting the elderly, not just a chief and not just in public, is bad. It is not amusing. But what would push someone to do what ought not to be done. Ask a vulture or a rabbit.
No matter what happens with your land investment, you must always have proper documents duly registered at the Lands Commission to proof your title to a piece of land. Putting you land papers under your pillow and not having it registered is unwise.
I often tell people starting real estate investment not to buy land at places that are too expensive now. Go to inexpensive areas. You see, our cities are growing so fast that if you go to a place that is some few kilometres away from the city, a few years from now, the city will catch up with it. A land you buy today for one thousand cedis per plot, you can sell it for ten thousand in the next few years.
For example, about ten years ago, a plot of land at Atasomanso in Kumasi was sold for about only five thousand cedis. During this time, most people saw Atasomanso as too far from the centre of Kumasi. Few people were keen at buying Atasomanso land. Today, the same plot of land that was rejected ten years ago is being sold and bought at not less fifty thousand cedis. That is a lot of profit to make. And people are now saying had I known.
Despite the risk associated with land acquisition most prudent investors still believe that investing in land is the most secured way of investing your money because land will not run away. It has no legs. No one can steal your land if you register it. Land prices never go down. It always goes up, hedging the effect of inflation on the value of your investment.
It is good to put your money in the stock. But our stock often goes through lots of earthquakes. Investment in land doesn’t.
I would encourage people, especially the youth and up and coming rich men and women, to really look at real estate. Real estate is the only investment that is real. You can see it. That is your land. You own it. You have your lease document properly registered. You just wait for some few years from now and you will be smiling all the way to the bank.
