By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter
If you want to witness how desperate people are for affordable housing units, visit the Ezdan Village 10 office in Wakrah, where there is a mad rush to book the highly in-demand flats.
Real estate giant Ezdan Holding group is known to have successfully launched a number of projects that provide affordable housing to thousands of people.
But as soon as they announce a project, they are booked within days.
Take the example of Ezdan Village 9 in Wakrah that was launched only last April and is located adjacent to Village 10. Today, not a single of the more than 700 different housing units there comprising studios, villas and apartments for families is available.
The main reason for the popularity of Ezdan housing scheme is that apart from being fully furnished, the villages contain services such as billiard halls, gymnasium complex, tennis courts, green areas, gardens, wedding halls and swimming pools.
It also features a mosque, a big supermarket, covered parking for residents and visitors among other facilities.
Mohamed Salah was waiting anxiously to book his two-bedroom apartment at the Village 10 office of the Ezdan holding group.
The 40-year-old from Egypt said that he had been living in Doha for the last couple of years in a one-bedroom apartment. The father of two said that since the birth of another child in his family, he had been looking for a two-bedroom apartment in Doha, but couldn’t find anyone that could fit his budget.
“I’m happy that I have found a very decent and fully furnished place at Ezdan 10, where for the same amount of rent that I was paying in Doha for a single bedroom apartment, I’m now getting a two-bedroom apartment in Ezdan,” he said.
However, there were a couple of compromises he was making, the most important being the distance from his workplace, which is located in the heart of Doha.
Due to Ramadan, the office timings have been divided into two slots, one from 9am to 1pm and other from 8pm till 10pm in the night.
Anytime of the day that you visit the office, you’ll see a long queue of people waiting to book their flat. And the flats are running out fast.
“I came in the morning to select an apartment, but by the time I returned in the evening with the required documents and money, that apartment had been rented out to another person,” another man, Ahmed, said.
The required documents include a marriage certificate, 16 signed cheques in Ezdan Holding group’s name and QR5,300 as security deposit.
One booking agent at the office said that all three-bedroom apartments, one-bedroom apartments and even the two-bedroom apartments on the first floor had been booked already.
“There are so many people who are interested in taking the lease of the apartment that I hardly get time to relax,” the agent said.
In the recent Bayt.com survey, 59% of residents had reportedly expressed their unhappiness with the high cost of living here and rents constituting the single largest component of the monthly budget for most of the people.
One of the apartment complexes at an Ezdan village.
