45 rental buildings shut over violations, 50 others warned

The tourism monitoring authority in Makkah has closed down 45 furnished apartment buildings and issued warnings to 50 others during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
Revealing this, Mohammed Al-Omari, executive director of the authority’s Makkah branch, told Arab News that the closures were due to numerous complaints received from the holidaymakers about the substantial increase of rents, of more than 50 percent, made by the apartment owners.
He said investors are entitled to increase prices during high seasons by 50 percent, but any additional increase is considered a violation of the regulations and is punishable by law.
“At the same time, the regulations protect the rights of the tenants in the event of the owners of such serviced apartments increase prices by more than 50 percent to the original rental list, and the apartment seekers can inform us of such incidents by submitting proof of this via fax,” he said.
Al-Omari confirmed the authority received more than 50 complaints of rent manipulation and excessive increases.
Regarding the mechanism of controlling prices, he explained: “The price is tied to the level of classification of the facility, as well as the level of services provided. Therefore, you may find two facilities that are both rated as second class, but are priced differently, and this price difference is due to differences in services provided by different investors.”
With Jeddah receiving a large number of visitors during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, many investors and owners of furnished apartments took advantage of the busy season to increase the rental prices of apartments, with increases estimated at nearly 100 percent during the days of Eid.
Abdul Rahman Al-Jaidi expressed his shock about the excessive prices of furnished apartments. “I came to Jeddah to perform Umrah during Ramadan with my wife and children, and we rented a furnished apartment consisting of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room for SR300, but we were shocked to see the rental increased to more than SR500 during the three days of Eid,” he told Arab News.
Similarly, Ahmad Al-Ahmed, who came from Qassim to spend the Eid holiday with his relatives in Jeddah, was shocked to see the prices per night for two rooms reach more than SR500 per night.