The Makkawis would rent their houses, which were mostly not more than four stories, to the pilgrims and live for the rest of the year on the income from the rent.

The Makkawis would live in a room or two on the roof known as the "annex". No matter how big the family, they would squeeze themselves into a small space, leaving the entire building to the pilgrims.

This trend has lately become a nightmare for residents. The municipality established special committees to check the buildings in order to decide whether they were suitable for renting out to pilgrims.

Though most of these residents spent most of their lives in these buildings without any accident, the committee said these old buildings were no longer suitable to accommodate pilgrims. This deprived the residents of an assured income during the holy season.

"We used to wait patiently for the advent of Haj. It was an opportunity for us to make money," Talal Mahjoub, a mutawif, told Arab News.

"We would squeeze ourselves in a room or two on the roof or go out to live with our relatives and completely vacate our buildings for the pilgrims.”

Mahjoub said the pilgrims used to come to Makkah two months before Haj and leave a month later. "Now pilgrims come to Saudi Arabia only a few days before Haj and leave as soon as the rituals are over. They don't even stay for a month," he said.

Amina Zawawi, an old Saudi woman, said though their buildings were simple and not properly built, they would fetch a lot of cash in rents from pilgrims. "We could rent out a building of only a few stories to pilgrims for SR40,000 during the Haj season. This was enough money to sustain us for 12 months," she said.

Amina said though the buildings were old, none of them fell down or collapsed. "We used to serve pilgrims three meals a day free of charge. This was not part of the rent contract but we did it voluntarily," she said.

Rayed Amin, a resident of Makkah, said investors who owned large buildings and housing towers started renting them out during the Haj season when they realized the profits they could make in a few days. "The citizens would not find any place to rent. Landlords would tell them that the buildings are for seasonal rent only, which is very expensive," he said.

Amin said some landlords would ask the tenants to vacate their apartments before Haj and to come back after the season if they were still interested. Left without a choice, many residents would go out to live in the suburbs during the Haj season.

A businessman, who did not want to be identified, said landlords who owned building towers would rent them only during the Haj season and would regain the cost of construction in a season or two. "They will not have to pay electricity or water bills as the Haj missions would take care of them. In this way the landlords would make a lot of gains," he said.

Chairman of the Haj accommodation committee at the Makkah municipality Zuhair Haddad said 6,514 out of 7,000 buildings were licensed to rent out to pilgrims.