This illegally-built first floor of a villa, made using gypsum, in Madinat Khalifa, accomodates many tenants like many others in the area.  -PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam

 

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Though reports of exploitation of tenants of residences by unscrupulous real estate agents and others are not new for the country's residents, it has reached a new high.

Capitalising on the helplessness of the expatriates with limited or low incomes, such agents continue to ruthlessly dictate terms to customers.

Residential properties across Doha continue to be in great demand despite massive residential compounds coming up in areas such as Wukair, Wakra and the Barwa properties in different locations.

A lot of residential properties, a majority of them old buildings, were vacated by their previous tenants in such areas as Farig Bin Omran and Madinat Khalifa as they moved to the accommodations provided by their employers.

Capitalising on these developments, various groups of agents latched on to the buildings in the above locations and effected all kinds of partitioning that one could think of, in violation of all municipal guidelines on partitioning of villas.

Potential tenants, mainly bachelors and low income families are asked to pay as much as QR2,500 for each room, built from cheap materials like gypsum and plywood, which provide absolutely no safety and security to the occupants, in the event of an untoward incident.

This is happening at a time when the municipal authorities have issued strict guidelines and instructions in the country's newspapers against partitioning of villas.

Similar reports of unauthorised extensions on top of buildings are also coming in from different areas. An aerial survey will reveal the enormity of such additions in many localities.

While it was hoped at the start of this year that there would be a fall in domestic rents across the country, the reports coming from such areas as Bin Omran and Madinat Khalifa are proving contrary to expectations.

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