Grappling With Increasing House Rents in Douala

Housing remains a nightmare as tenants are obliged to pay more than in the past.

Housing in Douala has been one of the most difficult aspects people coming to live in the town have to face as rents keep increasing. In spite of the fact that new houses are being built everyday there is still the need for more space and better houses to accumulate the growing population in Douala .As a result of the growing demand for better houses, landlords keep increasing rents. Most of them do so without bothering about the comfort of their tenants. Even landlords with rickety houses, keep their rents high because they know that tenants have no choice. Most of the houses, especially in swampy areas are built with local material such as cheap wood. It is difficult to match the rents paid for such houses and the houses especially in some slumps in Douala .New houses are built daily. But the new buildings are either not enough to accommodate the growing population or are unaffordable to most of the people. A landlord in Bonaberi, who has just built a hostel or “mini-cité" of high quality, lets out a one room and parlour apartment at 80,000 CFA a month on grounds that he has already equipped the house with furniture and television sets. He says the tenant need not border to equip the home but comes in only with his clothes. Even if some workers can afford to pay such exorbitant rents, most of them will not like to go and live in distant parts of the town. It is inconvenient for those who work in the main administrative part of the town or in down town such as in Bonanjo and Akwa where they will have to board taxis twice or thrice before getting to their job sites and their homes everyday. Apart from the taxi problem there is another nightmare. Even though one can find comfortable houses at PK 10, Ndogbong, Bonamoussadi and Bonaberi, the rents could be very expensive. In Bonanjo for instance, rents of a one room apartment in an in hostel or “mini-cite” cost about 150,000CFA a month. A two-bedroom house costs 250,000CFA, an amount which could even be more than a tenant’s one-month salary.In a chat with a few tenants in New Bell Bassa, a lady, Kondo Julienne complained bitterly. She said she has suffered a lot from illnesses because she suffers from floods each time it rains heavily. Her house is not only a rickety one but is in a slum where she suffers from mosquito bites and floods when it rains. Added to all these, her rents for a two- bedroom house without an internal kitchen, is 30.000CFA a month. She said she likes to leave the place but the rents of the houses she has attempted to get in are not at her reach.Another headache is finding a house to rent. Many people get in contact with middlemen. They get in touch with landlords and make known the vacant house. But these agents ask for much money. Before one of these agents gets a house for anyone in need, they asked for 5,000 CFA to open a file. When they succeed to get a house, the tenant has to pay one month of his rent to the agent. This has nothing to do with the contract he has with the landlord. He has to take about 20 per cent of the rent paid to the landlord. On the contrary, if the agency is well organised, the landlord pays the money there. One of the agents who accepted to talk to CT said that is the way they make their living. “When people go to work in the morning, we go out in search of houses. It is our own job and that is how we make our living.”

EFFA TAMBENKONGHO