Doha
A growing number of expatriates have resorted to Facebook and Twitter 'to voice their concerns and anger about the unjustifiable hike' in real estate rental rates in Doha recently.
Local Arabic daily Al Sharq reported that aggrieved individuals have formed groups on Facebook urging the departments concerned to curb the constantly increasing rents for what they described as "inhumane residential units, with narrow spaces, lacking even the basics of safety and security necessary for the inhabitants."
The campaign has the motto: "Stay positive and participate in Reduce Rents in Qatar Campaign; a distress call for the Civil Defence against the unsafe partitioned housing. You have the right to a decent and humane accommodation; safe and secure against hazards and risk."
Those behind the campaign have urged residents of different nationalities to express their experiences with such accommodations, brokers and landowners. Some posts narrate many bad experiences with the accommodation itself and the manipulation of the 'self-employed' brokers.
Many of the participants in the group, which has grown dramatically over the past few days, attribute the 'exorbitant hike' in rents to the manipulation of the so-called real estate agents or brokers and the expatriate investors of different nationalities who take villas or apartment buildings from local owners and give them to others at "very high rates."
Others blamed "the greed of real estate and house owners" who usually meet with each other at various social occasions at their private lounges (Majlis) and talk about how they have managed to make the maximum profit from their property. This drives them to compete among each other in raising prices and keep their houses vacant to get the highest possible rent.
An Asian expatriate told Gulf Times that he has been in the real estate business for the past five years and it is growing very fast. "I approach the local owners and take their villas for a three to five years lease contract. Then I get my workers into the place and divide into smaller units, which at times is a costly process. I have partners in this; agents and brokers who get me tenants and take commission from the new tenants at a fixed rate of half a month rent. Such sums we divide 50%-50% among each other. The business is very lucrative. Before, I had to take a regular job and could barely survive but with this I am like a businessman," he explained.
Through various posts in social media, expatriates complained such rental rates and bad conditions of accommodation is putting their family lives in the country at stake, as they struggle to sustain on mostly fixed salaries and rising cost of living.
Recently, it has been a common practice to divide a single room in a villa of a bare space of almost 5x5sqm into one room, hall, kitchen and toilet and offer for rent of more than QR3,500-4,000 without ACs. The issue has even influenced the outskirts of Doha and those areas which used to be considered very far.
There are existing laws and regulations to regulate the work of real estate brokers and agents, however many assume such a job without any credentials or references. They just agree with the 'so called investors' to get customers and take commission, fixed at least at the rate of half month rent.
"I once saw a certain apartment for rent in an ad on the Internet and called but it turned to be an agent. He told me the apartment rent is fixed at QR4,000 a month plus his commission. I called another person for a similar ad and he told me it would be QR4,700. But when I went to the place based on both descriptions, I found the same with another agent, claiming he is in charge of leasing," an expatriate recalled.
The number of the participants in the social media campaign has exceeded thousands and through their posts reiterate the same demands for quick and practical solutions for such a phenomenon.
"Too high rental rates are not good for the local economy. Such practices could harm the economy in the long run as many families would look for alternate places and the cost of every other business would accordingly increase," a senior official once stressed.
