Dear KMC, renting problems

Editor,
    
I would be very delight, if you can publish this letter in your widely read column for the benefit of the society. The article reads (K.M.C act before it is too late). It entails a social problem which is circulating in town for the past months. The full text of the article is written below.

K.M.C Act Before It Is Too Late

I am hereby registering my heart felt concern over the huge increase on house rent within the greater Banjul during the past months, which is definitely uncalled for. Land lords become so greed and show no sympathy to people in terms of house rent. Could you imagine landlords charges D1500 to D2000 for a double room and palour houses, D800 to D1000 for a room and palour houses and D400 to D600 for a single room.

Which average Gambian can afford to pay this on monthly bases. It does not stop there but goes further to be asked for 6 to 9 months advance payment, before you are allowed to enter a house. Could you imagine a family man paying 6 months advance payment which could be equivalent to D12000 if the house is for D2000 monthly. This is not small money and could be a starter for someone to acquire land or compound. But to my understanding this is happening because of the foreigners living in this country. These people pay any amount of money in order to get a house, and some times went further to pay 1 year in advance payment. So landlords, wants to take this advantage in order to make others suffer. Secondly K.M.C rent tribunal should try to stop such scrupulous behavior by land lords.

K.M.C rent tribunal should have fix minimum and maximum charges for houses depending on their facilities to the affordability of Gambian masses. Of course I understand that they own their compound and have the right to do whatever they want to do, but not to the extend of making others suffer.

There is aWolof proverb which says that “being a compound head doesn’t mean that wherever you want to piss you do so". Human being needs three basic things in life, which every developing nation should try and make it easy for its citizens. These basic things are food, shelter and clothing. If these three things are not giving a due priority, we shall always talk about poverty alleviation but shall never achieve it I am writing this article in coincide with the difficulty I went through during this days searching for house. This is a general problem complained by many people in the society.

I am a Social Welfare officer at Muslim Hands Gambia and I believe that speaking for the voiceless is part and parcel of my responsibilities and functions. I am please reminding K.M.C rent tribunal to revamp this problem before it is too late as voices are crying out there and is only we who hear their voices should come to their aid. This kind of inflation based on no ground but greed should not be encouraged.

Alagie Njie


Editor’s Note:

Alagie, you are touching on an issue that is international in scope. Londoners used to have reasonable houses prices until the oil boom of the 1970s. Then Arabs with huge amounts of oil cash arrived and I think 3 million Londoners have had to leave London since - since they could not afford house prices! The problem of locals being priced out of the housing market is happening all over and it is getting serious, but it is difficult to see what can be done, other than building more homes through government agencies and reserve them for local people on local prices - as the Social Security and Housing is supposed to do. Landlords will always go for the highest rent, although where your tenancy already exists, the Rent Tribunal should as you say enforce reasonable rent. But I don’t think they can impose a price on new tenancies in a free market.

By the way, Gambians abroad coming back with plenty of pounds and dollars also raise the market price, not just foreigners.