Prof. Lewis Abedi Asante
Designation
Faculty Exam Officer
Staff Grade
Associate Professor
Department
Department of Estate Management
Faculty
Faculty of Built and Natural Environment
Website
Email

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Prof Asante is an Associate Professor in Housing and Urban Development at the Department of Estate Management, Kumasi Technical University. He is an interdisciplinary urban geography scholar with expertise in housing and land governance, urban governance and development, and environment and sustainability. Since 2018, he has built an impressive publication record of about 30 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals including Housing Studies, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Urban Geography, Geoforum and Environment and Urbanisation. His scholarship has advanced southern urban theory through novel concepts including hybrid entrepreneurial urban governance, politically induced displacement, and wetland gentrification. He has secured multiple research grants as Co-Principal Investigator, with support from the German Research Foundation and the Cambridge Africa Alborada Research Fund. His consultancy experience includes work on the nexus between land and affordable housing for the World Bank and another on urban politics and political economy of African cities for the African Cities Research Consortium. He is the immediate past Head of the Department of Estate Management at Kumasi Technical University and currently its most highly cited scientist, according to Google Scholar. Overall, Prof Asante is a leading African urban scholar whose work bridges theory, policy, and practice, offering contextually grounded and innovative insights into complex urban challenges on the continent.

  • PhD Geography, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, 2016 - 2020
  • MSc Urbanisation and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010 – 2011
  • BSc Land Economy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 2004 - 2008

Member, Ghana Institution of Surveyors

Housing, urban governance, urban regeneration, market redevelopment and gentrification

  • Research Methods
  • Real Estate Agency and
  • Property Law

National & International Appointments (Service to the Community and Nation)

June 2022 to date, Associate Editor, Heliyon Society and Politics Journal, Elsevier/Cell Press

November 2022 to date, New Programme Assessor, Ghana Tertiary Education Commission

 

 

 

Consultancy works:

  1. November 2021 to May 2022, Role of Land and Housing Consultant at the World Bank, Reviewed experiences and identify potential solutions for Ghana’s urban land challenges in the context of affordable housing
  2. February to October, 2011, Role of Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, Authored a 230-page annotated bibliography on urban politics and political economy in African cities  
  • 19th Annual Conference of the African Real Estate Society, Arusha, Tanzania, 10 – 13 Sept, 2019
  • 18th Annual Conference of the African Real Estate Society, Abeokuta, Nigeria, 10 – 14 Sept 2018
  • 17th Annual Conference of the African Real Estate Society, Johannesburg, South Africa, 13 – 15 Sept 2017
  • 24th Annual Conference of the European Real Estate Society, Delft, the Netherland, 28 June – 1 July 2017
  • 23rd Annual Conference of the European Real Estate Society, Regensburg, Germany, 8 – 11 June, 2016
  • 15th Annual Conference of the African Real Estate Society, Kumasi, Ghana, 2 – 5 Sept 2015
  1. Asante, L.A., Bandauko, E. and Amoah, M. (2026) From markets to ‘mal-kets’: Infrastructure modernisation or cultural erosion?, Cities, Vol. 174, pp. 1 – 11. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275126002593?via%3Dihub
  2. Asante, L.A., Ehwi, R.J., Abubakari, Z., Abbas, J., Boakye, Y.A.B., Asare, P.A.J and Quaye, V. (2026) Beyond ‘Dust and Mud’: Citizenship, Governance, and the Politics of Peri-Urban Road Infrastructure in Kumasi, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 131, pp. 1 – 18. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0966692326000116
  3. Bandauko, E. and Asante, L.A. (2026) ‘Displace, Dump and Cage?’: Contested Logics of Spatial Formalization of Street Traders in Harare and Kumasi, Habitat International, Vol 167, pp. 1 – 10. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397525003480
  4. Asante, L.A., Abbas, J. and Eduful, A.K. (2025) The sharing practices of utility costs in compound houses in urban Ghana: Examining trust, solidarity and power relations, Journal of Urban Affairs (Latest articles), Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2024.2445829
  5. Asante, L.A., Bonsu, B.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2025) Resisting wetland gentrification in African cities, Nature Cities, Vol 2, pp. 268 – 270, Available: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00219-9
  6. Asante, L.A., Bonsu, B.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2025) Wetland gentrification: The African variant on ecological gentrification, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 36(2), pp. 460 - 477, Available: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09562478241253179
  7. Owusu-Ansah, A., Asante, L.A. and Zaid, A. (2024) The nexus between land title registration and property prices in Ghana: evidence from Accra’s housing market, Property Management, Vol 42(1), pp. 1 – 14, Available: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/PM-03-2023-0022/full/html
  8. Asante, L.A., Doamekpor, N.A.A., Kidido, J.K., Asante, P.Y., Abbas, J. and Fuller, H. (2024) Integrated urban governance of COVID-19 interventions in Ghanaian cities:  Insight from marketplaces in Accra and Kumasi, Urban Geography, Vol 45(10), Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02723638.2024.2336844?src=exp-la
  9. Ehwi, R.J., Asante, L.A., and Gavu, E.K. (2022) Towards a well-informed rental housing policy in Ghana: Differentiating between critics and non-critics of the rent advance system in Ghana, International Journal of Housing Market Analysis, Vol. 15(2), pp. 315-33, Available: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJHMA-12-2020-0146/full/html
  10. Asante, L.A. (2022) The politics of market redevelopment in African cities: Insights from two market projects in Ghana, Geoforum, Vol. 131, pp. 136 – 150, Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718522000616
  11. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2022) Hybrid entrepreneurial urban governance in post-colonial Ghana: An analysis of Chinese funding of the Kotokuraba market project in Cape Coast, Urban Geography, Vol. 43(10), pp. 1519 – 1543, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02723638.2022.2036525
  12. Owusu-Ansah, A. and Asante, L.A. (2021) Behavioural finance, property values and housing conversion in urban Ghana, Journal of Housing and Built Environment, Vol 37, pp. 1555 – 1577, Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10901-021-09910-4  
  13. Asante, L.A., Ehwi, R.J. and Gavu, E.K. (2021) Advance rent mobilization strategies of graduate renters in Ghana: a submarket of the private rental housing market, Journal of Housing and Built Environment, Vol 37, pp. 1901 – 1921, Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10901-021-09926-w
  14. Asante, L.A. and Abubakari, Z. (2021) Pursuing PhD by publication in Geography: A collaborative auto-ethnography of two African doctoral researchers, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Vol. 45(1), pp. 87-107, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03098265.2020.1803817
  15. Ehwi, R.J., Maslova, S. and Asante, L.A. (2021) Flipping the page: Exploring the connection between Ghanaian migrants’ remittances and their living conditions in the UK, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 47(19), pp. 4362-4385, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1945915
  16. Obiri-Yeboah, A.A., Ribeiro, J.F.X., Asante, L.A., Sarpong, A.A. and Pappoe, B. (2021) The new players in Africa’s transportation sector: Characterisation of auto-rickshaws operators in Kumasi, Ghana, Case Studies on Transport Policy, Vol. 9(1), pp. 324 – 335, Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213624X21000092
  17. Asante, L.A. and Ehwi, R. J. (2020) Housing transformation, rent gap and gentrification in Ghana’s traditional house: Insights from Compound Houses in Bantama, Kumasi, Housing Studies, Vol. 37(4), 578 – 604, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673037.2020.1823331
  18. Ehwi, R.J., Asante, L.A. and Morrison, N. (2020) Exploring the financial implication of advance rent and induced furnishing of rental properties in Sub-Saharan African cities: The case of Dansoman, Accra-Ghana, Housing Policy Debate, 30(6), pp. 950 – 971, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2020.1782451
  19. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2020) Urban governance and its implications for the micro-geographies of market trading in Ghana: A case of the Kotokuraba market project in Cape Coast, Geojournal, 85(5), pp. 1203 – 1225, Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-019-10018-0
  20. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2020) The urban dimension of Chinese infrastructure finance in Africa: A case of the Kotokuraba market project, Cape Coast, Ghana, Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(8), pp. 1278 – 1298, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2019.1629819
  21. Asante, L.A. (2020) Urban governance in Ghana: The participation of traders in the redevelopment of Kotokuraba market in Cape Coast, African Geographical Review, 39(4), pp. 361 – 378, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19376812.2020.1726193 
  22. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2020) Urban regeneration and politically-induced displacement in a secondary African City: A Case of the Kotokuraba Market Project, Cape Coast, Ghana, Geoforum Vol 115, pp. 21 – 33, Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718520301755 
  23. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2020) Conceptualising Marketplaces in Anglophone West Africa: A Sexpartite Framework, Geojournal, Vol. 85(1), pp. 221 – 236, Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-018-9946-4
  24. Asante, L.A. and Mills, R.O. (2020) Exploring the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic in marketplaces in urban Ghana, Africa Spectrum, Vol. 55(2), pp. 170 – 181, Available: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0002039720943612
  25. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2019) Changing Urban Governance in Ghana: The Role of Resistance Practices and Activism in Kumasi, Urban Geography, 40(10), pp. 1568 – 1595, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02723638.2019.1631109
  26. Asante, L.A. and Helbrecht, I. (2018) Seeing through African protest logics: A longitudinal review of continuity and change in protests in Ghana, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 52(2), pp. 159-181, Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00083968.2018.1477607
  27. Asante, L.A., Gavu, E.K., Quansah, D.P.O. and Osei Tutu, D. (2018) The difficult combination of renting and building a house in urban Ghana: Analysing the perception of low and middle income earners in Accra, Geojournal, 83(6), pp. 1223-1237, Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-017-9827-2 
  28. Asante, L.A. and Sasu, A. (2018) The challenge of reducing the incidence of building collapse in Ghana: Analyzing the perspectives of building inspectors in Kumasi, SAGE Open, 8(2), pp. 1-12, Available: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244018778109
  29. Asante, L.A., Quansah, D.P.O., Ayitey, J. and Kuusaana, E.D. (2017) The practice of defect liability period in the real estate industry, SAGE Open, 7(3), pp. 1-15, Available: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244017727038
  30. Ehwi, R.J. and Asante, L.A. (2016) Ex-Post Analysis of Land Title Registration in Ghana since 2008 Merger: Accra Lands Commission in Perspective, SAGE Open, 6(2), pp. 1-17, Available: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016643351