Signatures being gathered for petition calling to impose rent control

A petition is being prepared for submission at the Parliament calling to impose rent control in Capital Male'.

The petition is being organized by Male' Tenants Union (MTU). The organization gathered signatures for the petition at the Carnival area in capital Male' on Friday evening.

An official from MTU said they are working to gather as many signatures as possible, and the event carried out on Friday was an inaugural event for the commencement of the work. The organization will be going door-to-door in the upcoming days to gather signatures for the petition, said MTU.

"A large population of people living in Male' city are tenants renting apartments and houses. They are forced to pay exceedingly high rents for their apartments that are not affordable with their earnings. This campaign is an effort to make their voices heard to the parliament and the government, to show that a large majority of citizens wish to impose rent control to address this issue," said the official.

The government's policy to address the rising rents is to increase social housing in the Male' region and to develop other regions of the archipelago to minimize the demand on the Male' region. MTU said they do not see any progress in implementing the policy, which is why the organization wishes for rent control to be imposed.

According to clause 232 of the Parliament regulations, petitions may be submitted at the parliament to bring the concerns of the public to the attention of the parliament, and to comment on work being done by the parliament.

Efforts are underway to prepare a petition while the government has submitted a bill on rent has been submitted at the parliament. While the bill prohibits leasing unregistered apartments, it also protects some rights of tenants. However, the bill does not advocate to impose rent control.

Earlier this month, Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed had stated that controlling the rent would have a negative impact on the economy, and that the experiences of other countries that attempted to impose a cap on rents have not been positive.

He added that main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) does not intend to meddle with such markets. Nasheed said the rent of Male' city housing-units are high due to demand, and that rent can only be brought down if a sufficient amount of housing-units and more are available to meet the needs of the residents of the city.

"We try not to meddle with the markets if possible. Rent is based on the number of people who require housing-units , and how many housing-units are available. The rents are high now due to lack of available buildings to meet the needs of those requiring apartments. The rent will come down when there are more buildings than those that require them. If we meddle and impose a certain rent, it will affect the economy in many ways. It will damage the economy, as well as the state of the country. We do not see positive results coming out of efforts to control rent," Nasheed had said, adding that the demand on buildings is inversely proportional to bringing down rent.