A steep increase has been noticed in apartment rents in the city affecting young, middle class Saudi men and women who want to get married this summer. A leading real estate agent advanced several reasons for the sharp increase in rents. “At the beginning of February, the price of raw materials increased dramatically. In turn, the cost of the construction of buildings has gone up, increasing rental tariffs,” Saleh Al-Youssef, a senior Al-Narjesia building group official, told Saudi Gazette. Earlier this year, he said, the rental charges for two-and three-room apartments were SR23,000 and SR25,000 respectively. But, he said, the sudden increase in the price of raw materials and real estate has encouraged building owners to increase the rent by SR2,000 to 3,000. There is also a growing tendency among investors to build one large complex with 30-odd apartments rather than building smaller units. “That way they hope to get higher rents. They are also trying to attract foreign companies and furnished apartment owners,” he said. If the building owners fail to sign a contract with foreign companies or owners of furnished apartments, the apartments are offered for rent to the general public. “But the building owners expect the same rents they would have had from foreign companies and due to the shortage of semi-luxurious apartments in the city, many people do not mind paying more, thus pushing up the rents in general,” he said. These semi-luxurious apartments were initially rented by well-to-do expatriates, but now some Saudi families have also become interested in them. “Of late we have been receiving requests from Saudi couples interested in small but cozy apartments,” said Al-Youssef. Mohammed Al-Farsi, a Saudi employee at a local bank, says he is in a dilemma. “I had planned my wedding for March and started searching for a suitable apartment with an acceptable rent for me and my wife to be. I opted for a two-room apartment even though the rent was very high. My fiancée also liked it, but her father put his foot down and is now compelling me to have a bigger house,” he said. Al-Farsi says he does not have any option but to end his marriage plans altogether.
