The entrance to the Yangon Zoological Gardens seen here in a September, 2013 picture. WIKICOMMONS/PHYO WP
The next time you are shaking your fist at the sky in response to ballooning prices in Yangon’s insane rental market, think ye of the Yangon Zoo.
After signing a 10-year lease with the businessman Tay Za’s Htoo Group of Companies in 2011, the Department of Forestry has decided to jack up the rent on the unlucky tycoon. But not by much.
The original agreed-upon price was k70 million, or nearly $66,000 annually, according to a report on the contract in Eleven Media Group, and it is being raised to k77 million, about $72,000.
Though the contract is up for renegotiation every two years, a clause forbids raising the rent by more than 10 percent of the original price (take heed renters, that’s how you cut a deal!).
Without looking at the books of the Htoo Group of Companies, we’re fairly confident in saying that a few thousand dollars extra a year is no big loss for Tay Za, who paid what some said was the biggest settlement in Myanmar’s history to settle a claim against his airline, Air Bagan, after it crashed in 2012.
MP Nyo Nyo Thin agrees, telling Eleven that “the Yangon Zoological Garden is quite a large place, and the present increased amount is still low. It should be more than the increased amount.”
The Htoo Group of Companies runs the zoo in Yangon and one in Naypyidaw, the new capital.
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