Sharjah: Abu Shagara residents say they are finally relieved to see used car showrooms starting to move out of Sharjah’s congested district.
Shop owners at Abu Shagara Used Car Market are being given an option of moving to a new used car market, Souq Al Haraj, which is being opened behind Auto Village on Mohammad Bin Zayed Road.
Though only a handful of the showrooms have moved, the residents are happy as the closure of showrooms will see hundreds of parking spaces being freed up for residents.
“We have suffered for years and we have been waiting to see this happen for so long. The authorities have been promising to move the showrooms for so many years but nothing happened. Now I see that a few have already closed down and a few more are preparing to close, which has freed several parking spaces,” said Mohammad Nayeem, a long-time resident of Abu Shagara.
One of the largest used car markets in the region, with decades-old showrooms that number in the hundreds, Abu Shagara is notorious for its parking problems.
The residents have always blamed the used car showrooms for the parking problems as they take up the bulk of the space.
However, with shops shutting down, the neighbourhood is beginning to breathe easy.
“At least six showrooms around my building have closed down and the parking spaces they once occupied have been freed up for residents. Over the past couple of weeks I have found it easy to find parking space, even if I come as late as 9pm, which was not the case earlier,” said Othman Gani, another resident.
But not all of the residents are celebrating yet as the bulk of the showrooms are still operating as usual.
“I won’t celebrate until all of them go. I have seen a handful of the showrooms have closed, but the entire market is still operating as usual. I think it will take months for all of them to go or it may be years,” said Abdul Wahab, who have lived in the area for 30 years.
However, shop owners have their own woes to share as they have no choice but to move.
The shops are closing down one by one, as trade licences are not being renewed by the authorities.
“I have closed down my showroom in Abu Shagara and rented a showroom in the new market last month. I feel we are being exploited here. In Abu Shagara I used to pay Dh90,000 as rent and in the new market they are charging between Dh250,000 and Dh360,000 for showrooms and they are forcing people to sign contracts for three years,” said a visibly upset dealer.
Ebrahim Nizar, another dealer who moved to Souq Al Haraj last month, said: “We have moved already and most people don’t mind moving. But the problem is with the exorbitant rent. I feel they should have given some breathing space for a few months to settle down. The rent I am paying in the market is four times what I used to pay and I know for the first year we will only make losses.”
He added that most of the shop owners are opting to move either to Dubai or Ajman, where they say the rents are cheaper.
Gulf News visited the new market on Monday, which is still deserted and apart from a couple of showrooms most of them are yet to become operational.
The manager of one showroom said: “These are early days, people still don’t know about the market. We are trying to get our regular customers through phone. Hopefully, once all the shops open, customers will start coming.”
The new market is well equipped with each showroom allotted proper parking spaces apart from wide roads, customer parking, mosques as well as washrooms.
Operators of Souq Al Haraj declined to speak to Gulf News.
