Property owners in low-density suburbs no longer enjoy the luxury of choosing tenants and setting conditions as the economic hardships drive lodgers to cheaper areas.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Most landlords in plush residential areas who used to demand that a single family take up the whole house are now renting out rooms to several tenants because very few people can still afford to pay huge rentals.
Real estate experts say there has been a surge in property owners in the low density areas offering rooms to let, as market forces have seen a general reduction in rentals. A research conducted by the Zimbabwe National Association of Housing Cooperatives (Zinahco) showed that low-income earners were being charged $50 to $80 per room in the high and medium density areas respectively.
The reduction was from an average of $100 and $80 for medium and high-density houses respectively.
A survey by Standardbusiness showed that rentals for properties in the low-density suburbs for middle-income families were now ranging between $400 and $450 for the whole house. Before the economic meltdown, the properties attracted rental fees of $800 and above.
Zinahco president Mike Duru said tenants had become kings as landlords could no longer charge as they used to.
“Now you find that if someone has a house, the landlord is actually persuading these tenants to stay. The paradigm has shifted and instead of the tenant kneeling down begging for accommodation, it is now the landlords going down on their knees. Some of these landlords are multi property owners. One might have five or 10 houses in Harare and they occupy just one house and expect to raise money from the other properties. So there is no way they can charge high prices because there will be no takers,” Duru said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
He said many landlords had taken their tenants to court for failure to pay rent, but most were unable to recover the money.
“In fact, the courts end up telling tenants to pay what they can afford to pay. People do not have money to pay rent.”
Duru said a number of tenants in the urban poor income bracket were living on $1 or $2 a day and could hardly afford to pay rentals or council rates.
A Facebook group named Harare Rooms for Rent, has also taken the initiative of posting updates on houses, flats or rooms available to let in Harare.
Property analyst Washington Musiiwa said the high-end houses had seen huge rental declines as they were the most affected.
“Just like the worker who used to eat lunch at a hotel is now eating from take-aways, most tenants can no longer afford the executive ambassadorial houses they used to pay monthly rentals of $4 000 for. These have gone down to an average $1 500,” Musiiwa said.
“The very high-end type of residential dwellings have been the most affected by the current environment. You will appreciate that when one’s income decreases, the tendency is to cut down on expenditure.”
He said it was no longer unusual to find a tenant in the Borrowdale Brooke shifting to Hatfield as a way of adjusting to the prevailing economic environment. This has led to low demand for the houses in particular areas.
Usually landlords and tenants enter into agreements through some kind of contracts, setting out lease terms. The agreement might be verbal or written and is binding. Over the years, most lease contracts had a provision for the landlord to come back and renegotiate rentals upwards, but as the economy continued to spiral, that has since changed, with tenants negotiating for a downward review of rentals.
In some cases, if a tenant is faithful and consistent in monthly payments, landlords have found it wise to even initiate a rental reduction to maintain good relations and therefore longer occupancy.
“The logic is quite clear, ‘half a loaf is better than nothing’. This is so because the majority of tenants are simply failing to pay. Salaries are coming in late into the following month, or not coming at all, so this naturally cascades to affect rentals,” Musiiwa said.
“There is therefore continuous breach of verbal and or written contracts month after month on the part of the tenant, and most landlords are increasingly turning to estate agencies to manage the hustle.”
Duru said he expected the situation to worsen in the outlook with would-be tenants resorting to staying in their own makeshift housing units to avoid rentals.
