Renters, GCC Take to the Streets, Warn of Escalation over New Rent Law
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A group of renters in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh blocked the streets leading to Sassine Square in the area on Saturday afternoon, protesting the new rent law.
The protesters took to the streets to call for a “fair bill.”
"We are not denying the rights of the (houses') owners, but we rented these places with legal contracts, we did everything we had to do during the war, and we paid taxes,” the head of the renters' committee said during the protest.
"We are asking for a fair rent law, not a bill that would make us forcefully leave our houses,” he added, assuring that protests will continue and expand to include other regions in the country.
Later on, security forces reopened the streets in Sassine, but protesters continued their march towards Le Gabriel hotel in Ashrafieh.
"We demand President Michel Suleiman to reject the law,” they shouted.
"And we tell MPs that if the law was enforced, we will cast our objection in the parliamentary elections,” they warned.
Renters in the Beirut neighborhood of Wata al-Msaitbeh also blocked the roads in the area few days ago, protesting the same law.
Earlier in the day, the General Labor Confederation slammed the same draft law endorsed by the parliament regarding the renting fees, calling on Suleiman to refer it back to the Joint Parliamentary Committees for further discussions.
“Citizens have the right to have a guaranteed access to housing,” the GLC said after a meeting at its headquarters.
Head of the GLC Ghassan Ghosn urged, in a statement following the meeting, Suleiman to refer the endorsed draft-law back to the parliament's joint committees.
He also called for the formation of a national committee comprised of tenants, owners, senior legal, economic and social officials to establish a comprehensive national housing policy.
The GLC also called on tenants to participate in a national meeting that will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday to establish a plan to guarantee their rights.
On Tuesday, the parliament passed a controversial draft law regarding rents, which has been previously opposed by renters, who argue that many won't be able to afford it, prompting them to leave their homes.
The new law stipulates an increase in rents over six-year period until they reach 5% of their current value.
The old rent law pertains rent contracts carried out before 1993.
S.D.B./ H.K.
05 April 2014, 14:03
13
1/ who do the old rents profit to? = the government! as they rent lots of buildings under the old rent system!
2/ the BIG problem is also that the new rents are free so the owners increase the rents without any justifications preventing average families to stay! ex: in achrafieh rents soared from 900$ to 2000$ for a 200m2 flat!
= conclusion: the government MUST control the rent prices and let owners rent their apartments at a rent that benefit both parties! but do the government really want to?
05 April 2014, 14:31
04
peace. a 200 sqm appartment in ashrafieh is a luxury. 2000$ is not much for a luxury.
If someone wants to pay less, he can go to zalka, fanar, or jeitawi. he will pay 1000 there. or take a 100 sqm in ashrafieh and forgo the 2 living rooms and the maid.
05 April 2014, 14:43
12
it was not that much of a luxury before 2006... but the government want achrafieh to look like dubai... the gentrification process started and the people either pay or leave... that is how lebanese government respect lebanese.... they spit on them in the name of dollars....
05 April 2014, 16:04
24
this is not the government fault. It is supply and demand, globalization. Cities all over the world are becoming too expensive for the middle classes. downtown Paris, New York, London, even Amman and Istambul are today too expensive for middle classes. Beirut has the same fate.
The government has a lot of faults. It is not their fault that you have tens of thousands of lebanese who made big money abroad who want to live in the city.
05 April 2014, 16:34
13
FT. I am not talking about solidere. Solidere is a market anomaly. I am talking about hamra and achrafieh and verdun.
05 April 2014, 17:02
11
who gives the construction permits? who allows buildings to be built that destroy the landscape and are an architectural madness to satisfy the freakness of some designers? who allow buildings to spread with NO urban planning? who allow concrete to take over and NO green parks like ALL civilised capitals encourage? who let the owners fix their prices with NO control? who allows entire buildings to be built and no one living in it just to laounder dirty money? who let the city spread with NO study of the impact on water resources, electricity supply, sewage planning, streets....
LOL
so if elsewhere people are mad then let lebanese follow suit... what a logic!
05 April 2014, 18:17
21
peace i hate to burst your bubble. But if there were more green spaces and if construction permits were more restrictive like u were saying, if infrastructure was better, then prices would be much more expensive. There are simply too many people with money who want to own an apparatment in beirut.
05 April 2014, 20:47
00
an apartmennt in beirut cost more than in paris! when the average citizen works for a misery compared to the standard of living in paris! but the gvt does nothing about that... in paris there is everything to justify those prices when in beirut there is nothing! so it is pure theft in beirut and the gvt shut their eyes....
but we know that the gvt spit on the average lebanese... they would rather them leave the country
05 April 2014, 21:01
00
Peace wrong and wrong
A sqm in Beirut cost 3000 to 5000 $ per sqm
In Paris it cost 8000 to 10000 Euro.
That is around 3 times more. And the aftertax average salary of an average frenchman after taxes is around 2500Euro around 3 times the lebanese average. So it is about equivalent. But the frenchman drives a small peugeot while the lebanese drives a range rover.
Stop expecting things from the goverment. The jobs of Governments is not to help the people, it is to screw their people. See it this way, and u will be much happier with what we have.
Stop seeing
05 April 2014, 21:02
10
stop seeing all the fault in government. There are market forces here.
05 April 2014, 17:24
07
And it is not only the needy, also the greedy. There are many well to do tenants (who are more well off than the building owner) are renting for almost free.
05 April 2014, 17:24
11
I work in the industry, the real estate "bubble" and the lunatic over inflated prices in greater Beirut especially began around 2007 fuelled mostly by expats' high demand versus short supply, nothing to do with Solidere.
05 April 2014, 17:43
05
and some rent at almost free prices while owning other buildings and renting them ! LOL
05 April 2014, 20:06
02
Supply and demand in a free market economy lead to situations like this. The country is tiny, Beirut is tiny, and demand was relatively strong especially between 2008 and 2010. Prices are also sticky which is why they aren't going down much.
Whether it's good or bad is a completely different topic which I don't think I can judge. Also, how to diagnose and prevent bubbles is something no Lebanese politician has the mental capacity to tackle.
But yes, scrapping a law that allows someone to rent a house in Ashrafieh for $300 a year while a neighbour paid $4000 for a square meter does sound fair to me.
06 April 2014, 04:25
00
The housing bubble occurred during 2008 mainly due to the crash in the markets and the housing crisis in the USA. A lot of people were looking for safe havens to invest in. A lot of foreign money went into driving the prices of real estate in Lebanon sky high. You cannot say its the same ratio as Paris; because the beauty of Paris far exceeds the beauty of Beirut the quality of services in Paris far exceeds the quality(or lack thereof) of services in Beirut. There is a specific law in France that limits the rise of bubbles in the real estate sector, so that any growth is simply a natural growth.
All the government need to do is impose a tax on any secondary houses that are not primary residences. This will cause foreign investors like the arab sheikhs who buy up 5 apartments without even looking at them, have to pay a housing tax on the residences that they personally do not reside in. It will reduce speculation and real estate prices will follow a natural growth pattern.
06 April 2014, 07:23
00
The problem in Beirut, Solidere, and the expats your talking about can be taken care of simply by instating a carbon footprint or an eyesore tax some cities in America have.
Simply put most apartments in Beirut are empty. Expats buy them as an investmemt and leave. They pay a discounted service fee to the building management to keep neighbors happy and thats it. Even builders keep the apartment for as long as they need till they get their million dollar buyer without any significant financial burden.
If the apartment is empty, tax it. Either live in it more than 6 months a year or rent it out, otherwise tax it. Explanation? Building a house has an adverse effect on the environment... You build because its needed.
06 April 2014, 17:36
00
Agree, exactly the same happened to my father, he worked 30 years in south America, bought a building in Bey, never got a penie, now retired and in need of income.
and yes, the renters are better off and have more money than him !!!
06 April 2014, 18:26
00
It seems some of you don't understand Demand & Supply. this is the Marketplace. If you want to live in a nice, well neighborhood, you must pay higher rent, you must work harder to earn more $$$. Stop relying on the govt. Why is the govt responsible for your laziness? this is theft by these low life people who are relying on the govt to provide them free or near free rent while they are driving the Mercedes, etc....
06 April 2014, 19:20
00
Instead of the state fabricating a fund that will be established (if ever) in God knows how many years to support those who cannot afford to pay rent and fabricating a law that screws everybody in a country where nobody but the poor workers pay taxes and get zero services, shouldn't the state start recovering the money that the mafias of Hariri, Jumblat, Gemayel, Geagea, Berri and other cronies have robbed in the amounts of billions of US dollars and do as proud nations attempt to do for low income people?
