Dear Editor,
Am I the only one bothered by the rental market? The rental situation in this country is a disgrace.
Rent goes up while wages stay frozen or inch upwards by mere pennies. People are working full time, even juggling multiple jobs and still can’t afford basic housing.
Meanwhile landlords jack up prices “just because they can” and sit comfortably watching their properties earn more than most people’s salaries.
What’s worst is the silence.
Where are the decision-makers? Where is the urgency? Is it because they own rental properties themselves? Are they more concerned with keeping foreign investors happy? Or just lack the political will to push bold housing reforms!
People are being forced into shared houses well into their 30s and 40s, staying in toxic living situations all while government nod along and do nothing.
Apartments and houses being advertised in US dollars in a country where people are paid in XCD. One bedrooms or studios being listed at prices that no one earning a minimum wage here could afford.
It’s as if locals don’t matter anymore. Landlords clearly targeting expats and short term renters who can afford inflated USD prices.
Some landlords raising rent with zero improvements to their property blaming the “cost of living” while profiting from people’s desperation.
This isn’t about a few bad landlords or temporary tough market. It’s a full-blown failure a failure to regulate, a failure to treat housing as a human necessity instead of a profit machine.
And another thing that desperately needs addressing is property hoarding.
There are people sitting on multiple houses and apartments that have been vacant for years while others can’t even find a room to rent.
That’s not “investment,” that’s waste and it drives up scarcity and prices for everyone else.
We need clear policies or taxes on long-term vacant properties to push these homes back into circulation. Vacancy taxes on homes left unoccupied for a certain period of time, use it or lose it policies for these “investment properties.”
Incentives for long term rentals and penalties for long term vacancies. Empty houses should not coexist with homelessness or impossible rent prices.
We need real solutions like rent caps, serious regulations of the rental market, disallowing short term rentals in certain areas.
