Fahd Al-Manai Saudi Gazette MAKKAH — Exorbitant increase in rent and the recent decision of the Labor Ministry to impose an annual levy for expatriate labor have forced several small business owners in Makkah to quit the commercial business sector. Abdullah Filali, member of the young businessmen's committee at Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said small investors are not in a position to survive the present situation. “They are struggling to cope with the situation resulted from a huge rent, plus the order to pay an annual fee of SR2,400 per each foreign worker. They are eager to avoid incurring further losses, and hence have quit the field at the earliest possible,” he said. The investors, he said, have become victims of greed on the part of landlords who hike rates of rent exorbitantly at regular intervals. “The new expat fee dealt another severe blow to them,” Filali added. Turki Al-Kabkabi, owner of a poultry shop, said that he is forced to abandon his business due to the skyrocketing rent. “When I opened the shop 15 years ago, the rent did not exceed SR12,000. A few years ago, the landlord hiked the rent to SR30,000, and two years later, he served us notice to double the rent to SR60,000,” he said. According to Al-Kabkabi, the street where the shop is located was transformed into a major thoroughfare with bustling business activity and this prompted many landlords to increase rents exorbitantly. “Landlords are not satisfied with a single increase and they continue mounting pressure on us by hiking the rent at regular intervals. Adding fuel to the fire, the ministry came with its decision to impose a monthly fee of 200 for each foreign worker, and thus shattering all our dreams and ambitions,” he said.
