TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse project risks in Ghana’s real estate construction industry in terms of likelihood of occurrence, severity of impact and controllability.Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research approach was used in this study to address the research objective. The study population consisted project managers, architects, surveyors and contractors from 17 members of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) in Ghana. Random stratified sampling technique was used to select 97 participants from these firms. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data, whereas descriptive statistics were used to present findings.Findings All risks identified have some level of likelihood of occurrence, extent of severity of impact and controllability. Market risks, technical risks and environmental risks are more likely to occur. Market risks, technical risks and environmental risks had the highest severity of impact. Financial risks, market risks, managerial risks and technical risks are the most controllable. Among all risks, environmental risks are the direst because they have high likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact but very low controllability. Real estate construction firms (developers) are therefore expected to prioritize remedy of environmental risks.Research limitations/implications The study is based on self-reported perception of project parties on the likelihood, severity of impact and controllability of real estate project risk factors. Firms outside of GREDA were not included in the survey. Therefore, generalisation of these risk factors for the entire construction industry should be done with caution.Practical implications The research results show that Ghanaian real estate developers are aware of the existence of the risks which impact on the performance of the industry. To effectively and efficiently manage these risk factors, project parties must understand the likelihood of occurrence, severity of impact and controllability of the risk factors, as well as individual firm’s responsibilities and capabilities to manage them. Such knowledge helps project managers to prioritise risks in managing them in the face of scarce resources. From an academic research perspective, the paper contributes to a conceptual risk assessment framework for the real estate industry.Originality/value The paper’s main contributions relate to the introduction of real estate construction sector-specific factors to project risk management modelling. VL - 16 IS - 4 SN - 1472-5967 DO - 10.1108/JFM-10-2017-0054 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/JFM-10-2017-0054 AU - Amoatey Charles AU - Danquah Doreen PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Analysing project risks in Ghana’s real estate industry T2 - Journal of Facilities Management PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 413 EP - 428 Y2 - 2024/05/10 ER -