57 per cent tenants pay 50 per cent of monthly income as house rent, reveals a survey

Habibullah Mizan
Staff Reporter, The Independent,Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fifty seven percent tenants in the city have to part with almost half of their monthly income as house rent, revealed a recent survey conducted by Nagorik Sanghati, a NGO.

Most of the tenants are from low income and middle-low income groups of people.

Nagorik Sanghati conducted the sample survey among 300 tenants in the city from June 1 to 30 June this year.

Sixteen percent of the tenants spend Tk three thousand to five thousand, thirty seven percent pay Tk five thousand to seven thousand, twenty eight percent pay Tk seven to ten thousand, ten percent pay Tk ten to fifteen thousand , three percent pay Tk fifteen to twenty thousand while three percent pay above twenty thousand, the survey said.

The findings said that fifty percent of the tenants do not know the actual size of their rented premises while seventy three percent have no written contracts with their land owners.

Fifty seven percent of the tenants are not provided money receipts while forty three percent are not supplied the copies of bill of different utility services.

Forty five percent tenants alleged that their land lords increase the house rent every year while fifty percent people are not aware of house rent related laws.

Almost all the tenants favoured uniform policy on house rent.