Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — The Ministry of Housing will launch an online project this year to systematize arrangements between tenants, landlords and real estate brokers. The service will also help control rents and enable tenants to pay them electronically. “The Rent Services Network project will also include a credit registry containing the names of tenants who are regularly paying their rents and those with bad records,” Al-Madinah newspaper reported Saturday quoting an official source of the ministry. Supervisor general of the ministry's agency for planning and studies Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Zumaie said the new electronic service will guarantee the rights of the tenants, the landlords and the real estate brokers. “The electronic payment of rents will encourage tenants to pay their rents on a monthly basis instead of yearly or half yearly,” he said, warning that the government may intervene to put a ceiling on rent increases in case of exploitation by the building owners. Al-Zumaie said the ministry is working on a number of fronts to control real estate prices, including the organizing of the rent market, ensuring the transparency of prices, monitoring the rent market to intervene whenever necessary and constructing thousands of housing units. He said the network will provide integrated solutions to the problems of house rents through preserving the rights of the three parties involved in the process: the tenants, the landlords and the real estate brokers. “The ministry is currently working with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to formulate the conditions that would enable the real estate brokers practice their activities,” he said. Asked about the mechanism to control rising rents, he said the Saudi market is based on the concept of free economy. “The ministry will not be able to monitor rents unless the network system is installed and is properly working,” he said.
