Thinklab

Envisioning Digital Futures

Dr Kwasi Gyau Baffour Awuah

Associate

Biography

Dr Kwasi Gyau Baffour Awuah is an interdisciplinary academic and a practitioner with over 22 years of experience in international real estate and urban development projects and sustainability/sustainable development issues across both the developing and the developed worlds. Kwasi is currently an academic and the lead for the real estate research and consultancy cluster at the University of Salford, Manchester. He has occupied several positions both in academia and practice such as lecturer/research/senior research fellow, lands/senior lands officer/valuer (chartered surveyor) and chairman of sub-technical planning committees of planning authorities.

He has also been a consultant and served on the continuous professional development committees of professional institutions such as the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS). He was a founding member of the International Land Measurement Standard (ILMS) Coalition and part of its Standard Setting Committee. He has consulted for institutions such as Ghana’s Ministry of Works and Housing, Guinness Ghana Ltd., Central Bank of Ghana, Ghana Commercial, National Investment and Agricultural Development Banks as part of his work with Property Investment Consultancy, Haldrup Consultancy and Valuation & Investment Associates. Further, Kwasi has worked with institutions like University of Wolverhampton, University of the West of England, Ghana’s Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Lands Commission, Volta River Authority and the Ga East Municipal Assembly. Kwasi has been a scientific committee member of several conferences and chaired several conference sessions. He leads and teaches on several real estate and urban development modules and has successfully supervised over 50 student dissertations at the undergraduate and postgraduate including PhD levels in the last six years.

He has conducted several PhD examinations as well as chaired several such examinations. Kwasi is also an external examiner for several universities, author of books and has published widely in peer reviewed journals, conferences and edited books. He is an editorial board member of Macro Management & Public Policies and reviews for several journals, conferences and publishers including IDPR, JPE, IJHMA, ECAM, Routledge. He has been an EPSRC/ESRC panel member, international panellist and discussant on several programmes in his field of expertise. Some of Kwasi’s works have benefitted from funding from institutions, such as RICS, DFID, EU, AHRC, Academy of Medical Sciences and Royal Academy of Engineering. Dr Baffour Awuah has also worked in collaboration with several academic institutions, government institutions, industry and civil and community groups both in the developed and developing worlds, which has made him to build a notable consultancy and research experience with several networks necessary for successful project delivery.

Research Interests

  • Land use planning and urban development processes
  • Land/property & natural resource administration and management
  • Heritage Conservation & Management
  • Real estate & development economics
  • Urbanisation, urban growth, governance and housing
  • Environment and sustainable development
  • Infrastructure development and financing
  • property valuation and management

Qualification

  • PhD in Economic Analysis of Spatial Planning & Management Systems
  • PG Cert. in Academic Practice in Higher Education (PCGAP)
  • MA in Development Studies
  • BSc (Hons) in Land Economics
  • Certificate in Project Planning and Management
  • Professional Diploma in Real estate surveying & valuation
  • Professional Certificate in Alternative dispute resolution
  • Certificate in Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C)

Professional Membership

  • Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
  • Federation of International Surveyors
  • Ghana Institution of Surveyors
  • Federation of International Surveyors
  • Ghana Association of Certified Mediators & Arbitrators
  • Higher Education Academy, UK (HEA)

Projects

Kwasi has been involved in several interdisciplinary and collaborative projects such as Ghana’s $55million multi-donor funded land reform project and the World Bank sponsored Accra Bus Rapid Transit Project. However, some of his recent projects include:

  • €8.998M INTERREG IVB North West Europe C2C BIZZ project (2011-2014).
  • Urban Land, Planning and Governance Systems in Nigeria Baseline Study (2014) (£46,000) part of £3million DFID funded Urbanisation and Infrastructure Research & Evaluation Manager Programme (UIREM) (Co-Investigator).
  • Planning and Governance of Informal Urban Developments in Nigeria project (2013-2017) (£80,000) part of £3million DFID funded Urbanisation and Infrastructure Research & Evaluation Manager Programme (UIREM) (Principal Investigator).
  • RICS funded Evaluation of Property Valuation Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa project (2014-2015) (£10,000) (Principal Investigator).
  • UWE/Ghana Local Government Service funded Leveraging rising urban land/property values to finance urban infrastructure development in Ghana/Sub-Saharan Africa project (2015- 2016) (£14,000) (Principal Investigator).
  • Academy of Medical Sciences funded Ecohealth field building at the nexus of climate change, urban sustainability and resilience of cities in Africa project (2018-2019) (£25,000) (Principal Investigator).
  • AHRC funded Application of digital technologies to the Indian tangible and intangible heritage project (2018-2020) (£150,000) (Co-Investigator).
  • Royal Academy of Engineering funded IT and Conservation of traditional architecture and heritage in Jordan project (2019-2020) (£70,000) (Co-Investigator).

Some Publications

  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Gyamfi-Yeboah, F. (2019). The effect of ground rent and unexpired lease term on property values in Ghana, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 3, 504-524.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. (2018) Urban Development and Governance in Nigeria: Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Direction. International Development Planning Review, 40(1), 27-49.
  • Elkadi, H., Ruddock, L., Baffour Awuah, K.G, Haran, M. (2018) Manchester Residential Investment Market in Focus. Consultancy report submitted to Greater Manchester Pension Fund.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. (2018) The Role of urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa Urban Pollution Management. In: Charlesworth, S.M. and Booth, C.A. (Eds) Urban pollution: Science and Management. John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and MORENIKEJI, O.O. (2018). Planning and Governance of informal urban developments in Nigeria. Report submitted to DFID. London: ICF.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Gyamfi-Yeboah, F. (2017). The role of task complexity in valuation errors analysis in a developing real estate market. Journal of Property Research, 1, 1-23.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G., Gyamfi-Yeboah, F., Proverbs, D. and Lamond, J. (2017) Sources and Reliability of Property Market Information for Property Valuation Practice in Ghana. Property management, 35(4), 448-466.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G., Proverbs, D., Lamond, J. and Gyamfi-Yeboah, F. (2016) An Evaluation of Property Valuation Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of Ghana. Final Report: RICS.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. (2016). Developing a framework for evaluating equity in informal urban land development system in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Galiano-Garrigos, A. and Brebbia, C.A. (Eds) Transactions on Ecology and the Environment (Vol 204). Southampton: WIT Press.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. (2016). Leveraging rising land values to finance urban infrastructure development in Ghana: A case study of Accra. Final Report: UWE/GLGS.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Lamond, J.E. (2015). The concept of affordable housing in the developing world: “is it a Trojan horse” or worth trying” Paper presented at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors- Construction and Built Environment Conference, July, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
  • Lamond, J., Baffour Awuah, K.G., Bloch, R., Lewis, E. and Falade, J. (2015). Baseline study on urban land, planning and governance in Nigerian cities. Final report submitted to DFID.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G., Hammond, F.N., Lamond, J.E. and Booth, C.A. (2014). Benefits of land use planning in Ghana. Geoforum, 51, 37- 46.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Hammond F.N. (2014). Determinants of low land use planning regulation compliance rate in Ghana. Habitat International, 41, 17-23.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G., Hammond, F.N., Booth, C.A. and Lamond, J.E. (2014). Evolution and development of urban land use planning: Analysis from human action theory perspective. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, 9(2), 35-67.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Booth, C.A. (2014). Management towards sustainable cities: Multiple concepts and principles. In: Marchettini, N., Brebbia, C.A., Pulselli, R. and Bastianoni, S. (Eds.) The sustainable city IX: Urban regeneration and sustainability (2 Volume Set), Southampton, WIT Press.
  • Ankrah, N.A., Manu, E., Hammond, F.N., Baffour Awuah, K.G., Hingorani, N., Wood, P. (2014). A model and user guidelines for economic valuation of C2C business development sites. Final report submitted to the European Commission/Interreg IVB NEW Programme.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G., Hammond, F.N. and Lamond, J.E. (2013). The cost of land title formalisation in Ghana. Property Management, 31(4), 389-403.
  • Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Hammond F.N. (2013). Prognosis of land title formalization in urban Ghana: The myth and reality of awareness and relevance. African Studies.