Malawi Housing Corporation raises rent by 10 percent
Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) has increased rent by 10 percent.
Corporate secretary for MHC , Welling Kazembe, said rental hike has been approved by government on condition that MHC renovates the houses to make them habitable.
He described the rent adjustment as modest.
But Consumer watchdog argued that the houses were in bad condition and that they were not in line with the hike.
“The rent hike is unjustifiable,” said Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) executive director John Kapito.
He regretted that the increment did not tally with their miserable take-home packages.
MHC owns about 6,032 housing units across the country and has over 60,000 potential tenants on its waiting list.
Recently, Daily Times exposed a scam in which MHC lost about K105 million (about $690 789) by selling 22 houses at highly discounted prices that were also said to be less than half the market rates top government officials.
Prof. Peter Mutharika and Lands and Housing Minister John Bande, bought public houses at heavily reduced rates. The houses where shared among ministers Mutharika, Bande and senior officials at MHC, a parastatal.
The former Attorney General (now Supreme Court of Appeal judge) Dr. Jane Ansah, also benefitted.
In the scam, Mutharika, tipped to stand in the 2014 election on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket, enjoyed a 62 per cent discount; Bande got a 49 per cent discount.
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