Urban Regeneration and the Housing Preferences of Ghanaian Slum Dwellers

The housing problem in Ghana is varied and diverse, made worse by the prevailing dominance of the compound house phenomenon. The compound house by its nature has been found to be inadequate in terms of fulfilling the needs of inhabitants when it comes to adequacy of amenities and sufficiency of privacy and hygiene. This work seeks to investigate the dominance of the compound house in Ghana despite its inherent problems, and what other housing preferences urban slum dwellers have. This was done within the context of urban regeneration (UR). The work drew inspiration from a previous work that investigated the possible adoption of UR in transforming slums in Ghana. The question regarding what housing type/s to produce in UR has been answered in this work, and consequently extending the discussion a step further. The reasons for choosing their current places of residence were outlined. It was also established that other housing types such as the apartment was largely preferred by the respondents. It is therefore envisaged that apartment development in places such as Ashaiman will receive the needed patronage if undertaken in any UR implementation