Sharjah: Landlords in Sharjah are cashing in on rising rents and lack of public parking by hiking private parking rates, residents have told XPRESS.
“I had been paying Dh1,500 annually for my parking slot, but I have been told by my real estate manager that I will have to shell out Dh1,000 more if I want to renew my parking contract,” said Gabriella, an Argentine airline cabin crew living with her husband in Al Nahda.
She, like hundreds of her neighbours, is left with no choice but to pay two-thirds more, or even more in some cases, to secure a slot for her car in Sharjah’s quickly depleting parking space.
Renewal costs
“The parking fees have doubled in my building from this month. I was paying Dh1,250, but now I have to pay Dh2,500 to renew my contract,” said Egyptian Yahya Ali who lives in an Al Taawun building.
“Do we have an option?” says Indian expat Yousuf Ali, who lives in the Al Khan area.
“Of course we are unhappy with the hike, but I would rather pay more than leave my car in a sandy parking space where it could get a dent or scratch,” he says.
A couple of months ago, XPRESS reported how parking woes are driving Sharjah residents up the wall, with many residents being fined on a daily basis for ‘preventing the flow’ of traffic despite parking on the sides of roads.
Several motorists who want to pay and park their car cannot do so because their buildings do not have parking provisions for all their residents.
“The latest development surely doesn’t bode well,” said a real estate manager who did not want to be named. “We are forced to do this on directives of the owners. Parking inside the building is going to cost even more in the months to come.”
Many families who were hoping to pay and park say the hike has hurt their budgets.
“I had planned on using the building parking. I had even applied to my landlord for a parking space, but I’ve changed my mind. It would have cost me Dh100 a month, but now I have to shell out almost double. My travel expenses have already gone up because of Salik,” said Al Khan resident Shahid Akram who earns Dh7,000 plus commissions as a sales executive for a Jebel Ali firm.
“I do not understand why they would increase parking fees. Do they think someone will actually stay there?” asked longtime Rolla resident Faisal Javed. “I would rather pay five fines a year for parking on the roadside than pay thousands for parking,” says the Indian executive.
Back in 2008, officials reportedly announced they would build 40 paid multi-storey car parks. One of them collapsed halfway into construction and the construction of another was stalled midway. Plans to construct the others are still essentially on paper.
