The need for a law capping rent increases?

Rising rents cause concern

By Ali Al Badi

MUSCAT Rents in the Sultanate are on an upswing. The rise has exceeded 200 per cent in Muscat, 300 per cent in Sohar and 100 per cent in Salalah.

Experts say this is due to absence of activation of laws governing rent practices. They say there is a need for laws to govern the process of raising prices and resolve disputes between owners and tenants.

The phenomenon of high prices of real estate rents, especially by greedy landlords at the expense of tenants, is turning from bad to worse.

This has made some landlords to exploit the situation leading to situations where tenants are either forced to accept the new rent or search for a new house. And most of the time the tenants end up in accepting the new rent grudgingly.

According to the public, there is no way to stop the landlords from hiking rents.

HE Younis Bin Sabeel Al Balushi, Chairman of the Economic Committee in the Shura Council, said the committee has prepared a study on the subject of high rents and concluded that the main causes for the hike in rents is due to hike in the value of land, some of which rose to over 500 per cent in some locations especially in Al Khuwair.

The rise in prices of building materials such as cement, iron, cables, sanitary materials and also labour wages has led to a surge in prices.

He said laws that specify a certain annual percentage of rent hike would limit the rise in an arbitrary manner.

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Amid rising inflation due to various factors, this is the last thing tenants could hope for...lets hope the municipality does something...

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