War on brokers

We heard and read the speech of His Excellency the Minister of Housing, Captain Ammar Al-Ajmi, in the newspaper, and I quoted some of it: "Al-Ajmi considered that approving the law without a package of housing legislation is a concealment of the truth." Therefore, we need the legislative package and financing to go ahead and rebuild the country. Thus, we have planted the right seed to develop the concept of housing care. He added, "We are fighting land brokers and those who turned model areas into investment areas, and we will cooperate to solve this eternal issue." I will leave the law on housing companies for the next article and focus in this article on a word that I think His Excellency the Minister misspoke, which came in his exposing land brokers and declaring war on them. Dear Excellency Minister, you left most of the problems facing the country behind and declared war on brokers! Who are the brokers? They are Kuwaitis, just like you, and what they get from legal brokerage is 1%, which they charge as a result of their mediation between the seller and the buyer. For your information, the lowest percentage of the real estate brokerage process is in Kuwait, as most countries have a real estate brokerage rate of 5%. I do not know why you put obstacles in their way by increasing real estate prices. You could also have been misinterpreted as referring to free brokers, who are speculators and have nothing to do with the price increase. The responsible party for the price increase is your wise government, as it is the merchant and the largest and sole monopolist of real estate in Kuwait. Review the data of the Ministry of Finance and ask them: how many investment, commercial, and residential properties are still in their name as a result of the appraisal? And why did they still keep it until now? And ask the municipality and the municipal council what obstacles they put in the way of liberating and reclaiming land for distribution to residential care and stockpiling it in the local market. Ask your colleague, the Minister of Electricity, what is their ability to provide electric energy to those cities? Also, do not forget to ask the Minister of Public Works: Did he find a solution to the problem of the asphalt mixture? Or will he use the same old mixture, whose pebbles fly after the first rain, and then smash our cars? Also, go back to the Minister of Finance and ask him if he has the budget for these projects or if he is still waiting for the approval of the National Assembly to open the treasury of the Future Generations Fund for him? You abandoned everything and declared war on brokers! Dear Minister, do not forget that brokerage is an honorable profession licensed by the Ministry of Commerce and has its own terms and conditions. I return to the other side on which you declared war, those who converted residential areas into investment ones, and I believe that by that you mean real estate developers, not brokers or free brokers. I do not defend them, but I want you to direct this blame first to your colleague, the Minister of Municipality, as well as to your brothers in the municipal council and the municipality. The question that arises here is: Would we have seen our residential areas turned into investment if the building rate had not increased by 210%? The increase in this percentage and the citizens' need for housing are the main drivers of this dilemma. Well, let us look at the issue from another, brighter angle. Over the past three decades, housing requests have accumulated to reach 90,000, meaning that there are now 90,000 families without housing. Where do you want them to live? Some of them live with their families, and the rest live on rent; most of them live in residential areas, not investment ones. Do you know why? I will answer you: The privacy of the Kuwaiti family and the size of their family require apartments with large areas that are not provided by the available supply of investment apartments. It is no secret that there are many investment buildings that are rented to unmarried people, and Kuwaiti families cannot live near them. Imagine, out of imitation, that, although I am one of those affected by the randomness of renting in residential areas, if it were not for this stock of rental units in residential areas, then the people of Kuwait are the ones who are waiting for the government, where you want them to live?

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