What is Hive Earth Construction

Over recent centuries, earthen building techniques have been falling into disuse despite the long tradition of using earth as a building material in our society. The most common materials used for building walls in the warm-humid and hot-dry regions since ancient times are stones, and earth-based bricks. About 50% of the Ghanaian population lives in earthen buildings.. Most of these homes were built without the need to import any materials. Modern technology in buildings has made it possible to find homegrown solutions and add value to our local building materials without the need to import. Hive Properties has come up with a unique construction technique called Hive Earth Construction.

Utilization of local building materials among both private and public Estate developers are very low. Reasons advanced by these developers for lack of patronage include the lack of confidence in the technical durability of the materials, unreliable supply of the materials resulting in high utilization cost and delays. This has resulted in huge housing deficit and expensive housing construction in Ghana.

The building industry will always need materials, so the question becomes: what are the best materials and products to use? One has to consider the overall life cycle of the materials, the facility and building site as a whole. Green/Sustainable building takes all of these life cycle impacts into account with the goal of maximizing efficiency and minimizing waste in every phase of construction and throughout the life of the building. Sustainable building methods reduces the rate of deforestation and pollution and can achieve low energy costs throughout their lifetime – in the initial manufacture and construction; in their use as homes and eventually in their recycling back to the earth.

Published by: Joelle Eyeson

Update from Hive

Hello from all of us at Hive, we have been very busy bees over the past few months.  After great sales of our of our lands in dodowa and Ayikuma we have almost completely sold out. We have now started building our homes in our estates and are very excited.

At the moment we are in the process of builindg our show home which is 90% complete. This show home is a 1 bedroom self compound home with a balcony, we are happy to anounce that the house was all proudly made in Ghana. The windows and doors were all made from our craftsmen on site, the walls were also all rammed on site.

This week we have been out and about buying interior furnishings to put in the show home. We cant wait till its finsished.  We have also started building our first exectutie homes in our communities.

Published by: Joelle Eyeson

Affordable Housing in Ghana

This weeks post is going to be a little different than what was planned, I was going to write further about our interior design services but wanted to touch on the subject of affordable housing.

If you aren't aware, Ghana has a housing deficit of 1.7 million housing units and counting. There has been several attempts from the government to provide affordable housing, there is always something in the news about how the government plans to build affordable housing or how they have partnered with a foreign private company to provide affordable housing but nothing seems to materialise.

There are many factors that contribute to this deficit and unless action is seriously taken it will continue to grow.

Luxury housing

When you walk around accra for example there is plenty of construction taking place but most of it seems to be for luxury apartments or development. Yes there are people that can afford this but the majority cannot. A lot of these new developments that are springing up will cost more in rent than the average Ghanaians salary. At hive we believe that whatever you earn you have the right to own your own home, we believe in providing affordable luxury for the low and middle class earners. Our homes start from as little as 48,000 gh cedis (aprox 15,000 dollars). We also offer affordable payment plans aswell.

Land Costs

The costs of land in the city is extremely high, this in turn passes on the cost to the buyer. Another problem with high land costs is that many developers now are building apartments as it works out cheaper for them in instead of buying so many plots of land. 

In our communities you can purchase a plot of land from as little as 4500 gh cedis, another benefit to this is that you can purchase more land for your money and have a huge compound. With all the greenery we have in the country and our tropical climate, its always a plus to be able to have a nice house and big compound instead of being squeezed into an apartment. 

Expensive building materials

The popular choice for building materials in this country is cement blocks. The cement used to build in Ghana is mostly imported and due to the lack of stability in the Cedi the price of cement has increased by 30% in the past few months. Again this cost gets passed on to the end buyer. 

At hive In order to make our houses so affordable we have our own Hive Earth buildings, most of our materials are found on our site, we hardly import making it extremely affordable and best of all the materials used in our homes are the best for our climate as it regulates the room temperature.

Unlike a cement block home it can get extremely stuffy and humid, with a hive earth building its very cool and airy, no need for air conditioners. 

Perceptions ( urbal-rural migration) 

Another major factor for the deficit is the perception of the people. It seems a lot of people are still migrating into central Accra from outside in search for greener pastures. But what is the point when you don't have your own roof on your head and you are working just to pay 2-3 years up front on rent in a house that you don't own. 

We want to promote urban rural migration, our up an coming Fihankra estates in Dodowa is only 40 mins from the Tetteh quarshie round about. There is an increasing amount of public transport that goes to Dodowa now due to its popularity. There are many benefits to living just on the edge of the city as compared to right in the centre. The views of the lateh mountains in our estates are breath taking, its so much cooler weather wise in dodowa than accra, the air is fresh, theres hardly any traffic you can get from one place to another in a matter of minutes, its very peaceful and best of all you can be able to afford your own home.

What are your thoughts on Affordable housing?

Published by: Joelle Eyeson

Services we offer.

When you purchase land or an earth building at hive we offer a lot of add on services:

Interior design services 

We have an in house interior designer that we work with. Our designer will make sure that your home is done accoridng to your specifications. Our designer Joelle eyeson was trained in the U.K and has a great eye for detail . She can help you from the initial concept of your design right through to the styling of your home. She specialises also in made in Ghana furnishings, anything you bring she can make for you.  

Land sales 

We have land for sale at various loaction in ghana, from various locations in accra, Dodowa, Aburi, Oyibi, Ayikuma, Agomeda, somanya, Various location in Kumasi and tamale.

Please click the link to also find locations on industrial and commercial plots.

http://www.hivepropertiesgh.com/landlocations.html#!/pageHome

Architectural drawings and 3D design 

If you have your own project that you are working on that isn't in our communities we are still here to help and offer our services.  We can help you from initial design, project managment and also 3D design of your dream home or commercial space.

We offer many other add on services, please click the link to our website to see what else we offer.

http://www.hivepropertiesgh.com/services.html#!/pageHome

Published by: Joelle Eyeson

Hive Earth Buildings

At Hive we strive to set ourselves different from the other real estate compaies in the country. We thrive on creating innovative and new ways of builidng in Ghana. Through extensive research and trial and error we have set our selves up to be trail blazers in the west african construction industry.  We are dedicated to providing affordable luxury in Ghana aswell as provding eco friendly and green living.

With our homes just starting from 94,000 cedis ( 30,000 dollars approx) one of our fundemenatal goals is to provide affordable luxury. Our secret to such affordability is the matreials and methods that we use in order to build. We use earth that is found on our site for our hive earth buildings, we then compress the earth to create solid walls for our homes.

Earth walls are some of the strongest walls you can get,  shatter proof, termite proof, bullet proof (and yes we have tried to shoot our walls, it didn’t even dent) Thermally insulative which regulates the room temperature by keeping it cool when its warm and keeping it warm when its cool,  maintenance free and many more benefits. 

It is believed that famous buildings like the pyramids and the great wall of china have used rammed earth methods for their buildings, these buildings have been standng for 100’s of years and are still very strong today.

The Famous Pyramids, believed to be an earth building

The Great Wall of china, also believed to be an earth Building

In  places such as the states and europe earth buidings are houses that are normally associated with the rich as this material is not easily found in such abundance, but in africa we have it in abundance. Have a look at some of these beautiful earth buildings.

Posted By: Joelle Eyeson