By Lucas Liganga
The Citizen Chief Reporter
Dodoma. MPs yesterday unanimously endorsed a private members’ motion seeking to curb exploitation of hapless tenants by landlords and real estate agents.Voting by acclamation, the MPs supported the motion by Mr January Makamba (CCM - Bumbuli) calling for enactment of a specific law to regulate the real estate business and enable government collect billions of shilling in property tax.

Mr Makamba moved to introduce a Rental Housing Bill, which he said would protect more than 14 million tenants from exploitative tendencies by unscrupulous landlords.

However, tabling of the Bill will have to wait for an unspecified time pending the creation of a housing policy by the government that will set the pace towards the introduction of the sought law.Parliament accepted Mr Makamba’s motion on the very day they shot down another private motion by Kigoma North MP Mr Zitto Kabwe on the revival of the troubled sisal sub-sector.

Moving his motion, the MP told the august House that Tanzania’s unregulated housing industry has caused untold suffering to tenants who are perennially harassed by their landlords.

Mr Makamba, who also chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals noted that tenants were routinely subjected to six months’ or even one-year’s rental payments. He also spoke of cases of landlords demanding payment in US dollars.

He said in most cases, defenseless tenants were subjected to all sorts of maltreatment including abusive rental conditions such as eviction without prior notice.

The lawmaker added that the Bill would propose the formation of a Real Estate Regulatory Authority (REAL) to monitor and control the housing industry, including making sure that landlords pay tax on the rent they charge their tenants.

He referred to statistics by the Tanzania Tenants Association that show that 60 per cent of urban dwellers live in rented homes, which take up to 40 per cent of their incomes.  Mr Makamba said during the economic reforms of 1980s and 1990s, the country did away with the Rent Restriction Act of 1984, which was supplanted by the Land Dispute Settlement Act of 2002.

He said statistics indicated that there was a deficit of 3 million houses in the country, adding that 200,000 new houses were needed yearly.

Mr Makamba pointed out that his proposed Bill does not only seek to protect the tenants but also the landlords from stubborn tenants. The MP urged for speed from the State in drafting the housing Bill so that relief to tenants and other positive regulatory changes he was seeking are not delayed unnecessarily. Reacting to the motion, the minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Prof Anna Tibaijuka, agreed on the need to table the Rental Housing Bill in due course because, she said, it would be of benefit to tenants.

She said the housing policy would enable the government to get ideas on how to go forward in introducing the Rental Housing Bill.
Prof Tibaijuka said currently, there was the Human Settlements Development policy that mainly dealt with town planning issues.

Mr Freeman Mbowe (Hai - Chadema) and Mr Christopher Ole Sendeka (Simanjiro-CCM) paid tribute to Mr Makamba for moving the Rental Housing Bill and called on the government to hasten the formulation of the housing policy.
Debating the motion, Mr Ole Sendeka said he also intended to move a private motion in future seeking to repossess government houses that were sold to some government officials.

“Oysterbay used to house senior government officials but the area is now occupied by foreign tenants,” said Mr Ole Sendeka.Mr Mbowe wondered why no housing policy was in place 50 years after independence.
He urged the government to establish a real estate regulatory authority saying the government was losing a lot of foreign exchange through the unregulated construction industry which was growing at 14 per cent a year.

Ms Esther Bulaya (Special Seats-CCM) said the enactment of a law that would regulate the rental housing would save tenants from paying rent in foreign currency.

Meanwhile, Parliament rejected a private motion by Mr Zitto Kabwe (Kigoma North-Chadema) asking the House to discuss the situation facing sisal and a resolution dedicating 2012 to the improvement of the cash crop.
Mr Zitto explained how the crop could be turned into a foreign exchange spinner and job creator for the country’s hundreds of thousands of jobless youth.

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