Dhaka is known for unusually higher house rent. In recent decades house rent has increased exponentially. Middle-class people spend lion share of their income for house rent. They have been demanding some sort of regulation in the house rent sector. But that was never heeded. Landlords continued to increase rents every year.
Now the present covid-19 pandemic has changed the situation. Many middle income and lower-income people have lost their jobs or businesses. Many have faced salary adjustment. So tenants are leaving the capital Dhaka. Some are ever saying, Dhaka has given them nothing and they will never come back, even when the pandemic is over.
Landlords have no alternative now. No one knows when the situation will be normal again. Global coronavirus pandemic situation is worsening day by day. Many landlords rely only on the income from house rent. According to official data, there are three lac forty thousand houses in the capital. Some experts estimate already seventy-five thousand families have left the capital.
Many house and apartment owners have constructed or bought their houses or flats from retirement benefits. Now they are not getting tenants. There are some groups of people especially in old Dhaka where people didn’t do anything for income in their life. Because they get easy money form house rent.
Many house owners are reducing house rent to keep tenants, some are reducing service charges. Many house owners have said, they have halved house rent, but no one is coming for renting.
