CPA seeks 5% increase every two years RIYADH – The Consumer Protection Association (CPA) has sent a letter to the Ministry of Housing asking it to introduce regulations that would oversee the relationship between real estate owners and tenants. The CPA also urged the ministry to order that rents are only increased by five percent every two years. Dr. Nasser Al-Tweam, CPA President, was quoted in Al-Eqtisadiah Arab daily as saying that the CPA has found that some property owners increase their rents on an annual basis and sometimes by 100 percent. “The real estate sector in the Kingdom is not regulated and citizens are being exploited by property owners. We call on the ministry to design a national plan that deals with the issue and reassess the relationship between owners and lessees.” Rents take up 30 to 40 percent of families' budgets, he said adding that the percentage of Saudis who do not own houses is estimated to be 80 percent according to the latest statistics. This means that the majority of middle class families don't own houses, he pointed out. The government has provided facilities to develop and improve the real estate sector and increased housing loans to SR500,000 from SR300,000, he said. “A lady filed a complaint here after the owner of the building increased the rent to SR90,000 instead of to SR30,000. This shows how some owners don't care at all about the circumstances and needs of citizens.” The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) found that some real estate companies were prejudiced against Saudis and would not let them out residential units, prefer to let out to expatriates. The NSHR branches all over the Kingdom received complaints from Saudi citizens about this. The NSHR also discovered many violations in this regard during its investigations. Dr. Mufleh Al-Qahtani, NSHR Chairman, told Al-Eqtisadiah that the NSHR solved the problems amicably between citizens and these companies. Khaled Al-Bishi, a citizen from Riyadh, was surprised when he was told by a real estate company that the owner of the building did not want to rent his residential units to Saudi citizens. Al-Bishi thought this was an exception but was shocked when other real estate companies told him the same thing. When he asked why, one of the company representatives said this was because expatriates paid their rent on time and kept property in good condition, unlike Saudis. Muhammad Al-Ajmi, a citizen, faced the same problem. He found a good apartment but the owner told him it was not for rent. A few days later, he discovered that the apartment was rented out to an expatriate family.
