Doha: An increasing number of Qatari nationals are applying to receive free or popular housing under a five-year government plan to distribute land and houses to the national population, a local daily said here on Friday.
In the meantime, the expatriate community struggles to cope with skyrocketing rents, which have already led many middle-income families to leave the country, residents say.
On Wednesday, the ministry of civil services affairs and housing handed over 92 houses to their beneficiaries, out of which 82 were popular houses and ten were free, the English daily Peninsula said quoting a source at the ministry.
Under the plan, the Ministry of Civil Service Affairs and Housing has already built and handed over 1,439 houses to Qatar nationals, mainly low-income families and newly married couples.
The ministry has begun construction of more than 100 new properties and is seeking authorisation for the construction of an additional hundred following a high number of applications from nationals seeking popular and free housing.
Qatar's welfare system provides the national population of 150,000 people with a number of benefits, including free or low cost housing and land. The measure is particularly important, given the spiralling rents that are impoverishing an increasing number of middle-income expatriate families, forcing many to leave or to send their families back home.
Residents complain of increases that range per year between 15 and 30 per cent in rents, without considering the growth of other living costs such as school fees, fuel and food, which in Qatar are already costlier than in other Gulf countries.
The government recently put a ceiling of 15 per cent per year on rents, but resident argue it is too high.
"Even if the rent increases by a maximum of 15 per cent per year, which company would give its employee an equal salary raise?" an Indian national, who asked not to be named, told Gulf News.
"They are squeezing us, these increases are unjustified. Not only because we cannot afford them, but even more because the houses are not worth it. There is no balance between quality and price."
Rents have exceeded those in European capitals, residents said.
"I pay here 7,000 riyals (about Dh6,973) per month for a two bedroom unfurnished flat, barely finished, with no elevator, no parking lot and very far from the city centre.
"There is no value for money. I could find a better place for less in Paris," said a French resident.
The authorities have proposed the construction of an expatriate city to accommodate 300,000 low-income families, but it is not clear when the project would become a reality.
