AS land prices have risen and the conditions for applying for a housing loan have become more difficult, many Saudis have no option but to rent a house or apartment to live in. As a result, many low-income citizens have become victims of greedy landlords who raise rent prices without any notice, Al-Riyadh daily reported. Taking advantage of lax rent control laws, landlords impose unfair conditions on tenants as a way to tell them: Accept the rent increase or find another place to live. While it is true the Ministry of Housing has introduced a new rent regulatory system called “Ejar”, which is supposed to protect the rights of tenants and landlords, more efforts are needed to regulate the lessee-lessor relationship. Experts say additional regulations should be introduced to regulate rent prices. Contractual relationship “The new system (Ejar) will definitely regulate the contractual relationship between the landlord and the tenant, said Zain Al-Abideen Barri, a former member of the Kingdom's consultative Shoura Council. “There will be a unified binding lease agreement for both parties, an agreement that will keep the rent prices at bay. This system will create some equilibrium between the demand and supply for rental property in the market. I can't stress more the importance of such an equilibrium in keeping rent prices stable,” he explained. According to economist Ahmad Al-Dayel, if more leeway is given to landlords to increase prices of rental properties, society will collectively suffer the negative consequences of such inaction. “Living expenses have gone up while personal income has remained stagnant; therefore, it is high time authorities stepped in and took action to put an end to the exploitation of tenants. Let's not forget that 60 percent of Saudis don't own homes and live in rental properties. There are also around 6 million expatriate workers who reside in rented houses. They are also affected by instable rent prices,” Al-Dayel said. The housing problem the country has seen over the past years has been blamed primarily for the increase in demand on rental properties. Al-Dayel said the numerous development projects being implemented all over the country has increased demand for both expatriate and Saudi workers as construction firms and contractors struggle to find additional employees. As a result, the demand on rental properties from Saudis and non-Saudis has also gone up. “The only way to fight greedy landlords and end their control is to introduce some type of a rental index that controls prices and sets the conditions landlords and brokers should comply with if they want to raise rents,” he said. Such an index will help put an end to the annual increase in rental prices across the market. Al-Dayel does not believe that “Ejar” will eradicate all forms of blackmail practiced by landlords. “It only evaluates demand and supply in the real estate market. It merely gathers information that can be used to construct databases,” he said. People in the low-income bracket often struggle to pay rent, especially when landlords increase it at will. As a result, landlords take the matter up with higher authorities and try to obtain a court order that allows them to evict a tenant who cannot pay the new rent. Al-Dayel said courts shouldn't issue verdicts against such tenants, especially when the increase in rent is unjustifiably high. Saeed Al-Omari, lawyer and legal consultant, also said the large number of expatriate workers in the country who account for a large percentage of the properties rented have contributed to the increase in rent prices. Landlords are known to prefer non-Saudi tenants to Saudi ones owing to the fact that the former pay rent on time and rarely go to court if landlords ask them to evict the property. “It's better for a tenant to make things clear with the landlord right at the beginning. He should agree on the annual increment in rent and this should be put in writing. A clear agreement will prevent landlords from jacking up rent prices unjustifiably. No one should rent a property without a lease agreement,” Al-Omari said. Khalid Al-Otaibi, a real estate owner in Riyadh, said some landlords are not satisfied with making a decent return on their property and have developed a habit of constantly raising prices, taking advantage of an absence of regulations that prevent them from doing so. “Many low-income tenants find themselves in situations where they are forced to move out because their rents have been raised by exorbitant amounts. The Ministry of Housing should come to the aid of such individuals and enforce the Ejar system. We have heard a lot but haven't seen anything materialize on the ground. If a landlord wants a tenant to vacate the property, he can simply raise the rent and the tenant cannot do anything about it,” he said.
