Renters beware!

My first day of blogging and I already feel the need to share this piece of news, because I am very upset about it.

Today's front pages of the newspapers all mention Sheikh Mohammed's decision to put a 15% cap on rent increases until the end of 2006. Ha! 15%!!! And us tenants are supposed to be happy about that? I guess the government want us to feel happy and thankful that there is finally some sort of regulation about rent increases (which is an important step I must admit), but 15% is just a ridiculous amount! Because, of course, landlords will not increase rent by 5%...or 10%....or even 14%...No! They will use this decree as an excuse to increase rent by the maximum amount.

I don't know if you realise, but a 15% rent increase equals a Dhs 10,000 increase per year for my tiny 1-bedroom apartment in the Greens (that's more than $2,700 US per year for all you North Americans who may be reading this). Speaking of my 1-bedroom apartment (I ain't complaining...it's really nice and I have a beautiful pool and gym and I am only 10 minutes away from work by car, when there is no traffic....the traffic in Dubai requires a separate post alltogether, I am sure I'll be mentioning it a nauseating amount of times in the coming posts), I am paying the same rent for a 1-bedroom apartment here as we were paying for our enormous 2-bedroom apartment in Montreal, located in the heart of the city. Now that's what I call a ripoff! It's not like we're in New York, or London! Why isn't there some sort of regulatory body (like the Regie des Logements) that controls these things?

Why is it that some people who rented the same exact aparment as mine a few months before me pay less than me...and why is it that some people who rented the same exact apartment as mine exactly 3 months later pay almost Dhs 10,000 more a year than I do? How can that be right? Something needs to be done about this.

The whole point of me living in Dubai was to be able to finally save a bit of money (and be closer to my family)...but at this rate, I'll be borrowing money instead of saving it!