AN ANALYSIS OF THE OFFICE PROPERTY MARKET IN AIRPORT CITY USING PORTER’S FIVE FORCES FRAMEWORK

ABSTRACT Real estate in Ghana has also undergone tremendous change largely to economic stability and government‟s support of foreign investments. Over the past decade, the office property market in Accra has grown steadily averaging an annual 14 percent of GDP since 2010 (Setrana, 2013). This increase in demand has led to several developments being undertaken in Accra (Ghana Prime Properties, 2013). However, this paper focuses on the office property market in Airport City and uses Porters Five Forces model to make an objective assessment about the attractiveness of the market. This is because the model goes beyond a more simplistic focus on relative market growth rates in determining industry attractiveness. The main objective of the study was to assess the strength of the competitive forces in the office property market in Airport City and examine the overall attractiveness of the market. This study was largely qualitative in nature using both primary and secondary data. The study adopted an inductive approach to interpreting data by using public information about the market and also relying on statements by the interviewees to draw conclusions on questions raised in the study for the purpose of narrative analysis and thematic analysis. Overall, 75 per cent of responses agreed that supplier bargaining power was very low, 60 per cent of results confirmed that rivalry power among office property owners in Airport City was very low; 75% responses for office property owners indicated that the threat new entrants was also very low; however 72% of responses agreed that office property owners in Airport City do not have a favorable advantage advance with customers due to high buyer power. Finally 100% of responses agreed that the threat of substitutes was very low. From these results it can be drawn the Airport City is a very attractive market for investments since office property owners have a favorable advantage over four of the five forces.