Hike on Saudi Arabian Housing Rate

It was reported weeks ago that the Shoura Council, the legislative body of the Kingdom of the Sands, is thinking of revising its Housing Allowance policy for the State sector workers. Surprisingly, not all government sector workers are given Housing Allowance, unlike most of workers in the private sector. Some of those who are not given are the unmarried women.

This is where the problem starts. The Real Estate sector in the Kingdom of the Sands is thinking of increasing the rents should this proposal be approved. They don’t seem to care that the increase will only be for the government workers and not the private sector workers. The same situation happened in 2008 when both the Saudi government gave away 20% inflationary increase in salaries for the government sector workers. The prices of the basic commodities and the house rent increased drastically that the Private sector was forced to give away 20% inflationary increase in the salaries for the private sector workers. I hope that when that happens, the private sector will be perceptive enough and do more. It wouldn’t be good for an average white collar employee to subsidize his house rent. It would definitely cut down his earnings. If that happens, there’s no point in working away from home, especially if the white collar worker is a South East Asian Expat, considered as, Third Country National (TCN).

If you’re an average white collar employee who’s only expecting a 5% increase in your salary at the beginning of the year, you’ll be subsidizing your house rental. In reality, the 5% increase in salary is not really an increase but an inflationary increase because although you’ve gained 5%, the commodities also increased.

I believe that regardless if the proposal of the Shoura Council is approved or not, the Real Estate sector has already made up its mind. In the case of my apartment, for the 3 years that I’ve stayed there, I have never encountered any water shortage, never. Recently, and strangely, we’ve encountered several water cut-offs. The Real Estate office could not explain it and when asked about it, they’ll be in a defensive mode. D, a friend of mine who also lives in the same apartment building that I stay in, said that it’s their way of forcing us to move out so that they can increase the rent. If you can’t bear the pressure of having no water, you’ll leave, they win. Mark, a friend who works for Abdulla Fouad Holding Company couldn’t bear the water shortage any longer that he decided to move out last Wednesday. I think I’ll also follow him at the month’s end.