Sunday, August 26, 2007

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...



(Click on header to go to main article in Tribune)

11 comments:

Abdullah Al-Bahrani said...

Why is everyone against the landlord?
The issue is not how to stop prices from increasing, but rather why are prices increasing. Thus, instead of reducing the incentive for landlords, why not create an incentive to build. Whether its cheaper loans, or even grants for those whom need it. Ive said something about this in the past..
http://peryourrequest.blogspot.com/2007/03/its-landlords-market.html

muscati said...

I don't think there's a shortage of buildings under construction. Buildings are coming up everywhere. Muscat hasn't seen a construction boom like this since the early 80's. The question is whether when all these new properties starting coming into the market if they will stem the demand and result in a leveling of rent rises or whether demand will continue to outstrip supply.

Abdullah Al-Bahrani said...

Muscati,
thanks for highlighting that it is a demand and supply issue versus a greedy landlord hypothesis.
I dont understand, if supply is limited, why would people advocate a cap on rents which may create a further reduction in supply.

muscati said...

The landlords are greedy because they are exploiting the tenants and increasing their rents even mid-lease. They don't wait till the lease is over. They look for loopholes and double or triple the rent and threaten to vacate the tenants if they don't agree.

Anonymous said...

let's compare how bad the increases aka anal rapes are:

mine went from 500 to 1400 (qurum heights)

so kind of dear landlord to not technically triple it! thanks landlord!!

Anonymous said...

I can understand that a landlord wants to get the best price out of his property but come on!!! I have friends whose rent was around 180 and the landlord wants 350RO !!! Another friend's rent was 375RO and now he wants 700 RO. That's pure GREED. I hope more people would speak up. Now, thanks to my landlord I have no place to live since he has informed me he will increase my rent, after not living in the flat for even a year. If I pay the landlord what he wants I'll have a place to live but no food to eat!

Anonymous said...

I agree whatever rent is there. Can any one keep Poultry ( Hen and cock) . If some one couldn't even sleep as there is chicken shop that is smelling badly.and cause of flies and other . Aprt from that carpenter also keep big hens and cocks. They caw all the night.insects.Sometime they work even beween 2-4 pm. they encroached all sorroundin area. There are some other problems too.
1-I did't sign any paper could I leave at the end of the month.
2- Has That carpnetr right to keep these4 noisy birds?
3- how can I get rid of the noise-nights are sleepless aswell as the day.
Need your comments.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to His Excellancy the Sultan of Oman for promulgating the law in the form of the Ordinance No72 of 2008 to curm the unlimited increase in rent and exploitation by the land lords.
Unfortunately some landlords are trying to sabatoge the law by making false cases that they want to occupy the premisces for personal use and under cover of it try to increase the rent on their choice.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to His Excellancy the Sultan of Oman for promulgating the law in the form of the Ordinance No72 of 2008 to curm the unlimited increase in rent and exploitation by the land lords.
Unfortunately some landlords are trying to sabatoge the law by making false cases that they want to occupy the premisces for personal use and under cover of it try to increase the rent on their choice.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to His Excellancy the Sultan of Oman for promulgating the law in the form of the Ordinance No72 of 2008 to curm the unlimited increase in rent and exploitation by the land lords.
Unfortunately some landlords are trying to sabatoge the law by making false cases that they want to occupy the premisces for personal use and under cover of it try to increase the rent on their choice.

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