Rabat Housing Crisis: Students Face Soaring Rents and Substandard Conditions

In Rabat, exorbitant prices are being asked for "dilapidated" and "uninhabitable" housing by "anarchic" and unlawful intermediaries. This is the finding made by the website Madar 21 during a tour of the Yacoub Al Mansour district, known for attracting students, interns and some employees due to its proximity to various essential services. "This surge in prices is mainly due to the high demand for housing in the capital’s districts. [...] Previously, most citizens looking for housing turned to popular neighborhoods due to their lower prices and proximity to essential services. Unfortunately, even these popular neighborhoods now have high rents," explained Abdelali Errami, president of the National Association for Social and Cultural Development in Rabat, to the online media. He justifies "this high demand by the presence in the capital of universities, hospitals and central administrations, which means that the demand for housing far exceeds the supply, thus leading to an anarchic increase in rents." This civil society actor did not fail to denounce "the abusive exploitation of citizens’ needs and the increase in rents to exorbitant levels without any control." To reverse the trend, he insists on the importance of "setting a ceiling for rents in order to put an end to the abuses of those who take advantage of the need for housing to make an unethical profit." He suggests that citizens turn to real estate agencies operating within the legal framework in order to escape the "greed" of brokers and calls on these agencies to "help rental applicants instead of increasing the prices of their services".

"The owners of rental housing exploit the high demand to impose prices that bring them huge profits, especially those located near universities or city centers due to their strong attractiveness. [...] In some places, this exploitation becomes unacceptable with rents reaching astronomical levels," fumes Wadie Madih, president of the National Federation of Consumer Associations, pointing to the mismatch between the quality of these rented housing and the prices charged. "Sometimes these apartments or rooms do not even meet the minimum habitability standards in terms of cleanliness or ventilation," he laments. According to him, this crisis is explained by the "model based on the law of supply and demand without providing means to control the quality of this housing." While "the law of supply and demand requires monitoring the practices of intermediaries and landlords who rent out their housing," "its anarchic exploitation is what prevents its proper application and leads ordinary citizens to suffer the consequences of this chaos," he explains. He said that this chaos affects all sectors, not just housing or rental. "We do not feel that the law protects us, as consumers, from the claws of these profiteers and extortionists," Madih laments, deploring "the absence of bodies to listen to citizens when they are victims of scams from a real estate agency or broker." He also holds the housing applicant responsible for this crisis: "[...] The citizen bears part of the responsibility in this crisis. [...] It is impossible to look for low prices and high quality, to avoid dealing with unlicensed intermediaries, and then complain about exploitation, extortion and scams".