A proposed law that aims, among other things, to give landlords more power would seem like a very bad idea in a property market such as Yangon’s, where prices are insane and where people are vulnerable to eviction.
But that’s exactly what the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of Housing Development and Human Settlements appears to be doing with its new Urban Rent Control Act, versions of which date back to the transition from independence in the late 1940s.
U Win Naing, a spokesman for the department, explained the purpose of the law to the Myanmar Times this week in an article that says the draft legislation is headed to parliament “soon.”
“The old law goes back to after the Second World War, as the foreigners were leaving Yangon. At that time, they were the ones who owned the property, and in their absence local people would occupy it,” he said, adding that the updated version will respect the rights of the tenant AND the landlord.
There’s nothing wrong, of course, with respecting the rights of landlords, but how, exactly, have they been mistreated?
Landlords in Yangon demand six to 12 months of rent up front. Cash. Landlords in Yangon routinely raise the rent after these contracts end, which is not rare in other markets, but not all other markets have been compared (mainly in the realm of commercial real estate) to Manhattan’s in New York City.
The one renter that the Myanmar Times interviewed for the article expressed what most renters will probably think when they hear about this legislation.
“I hope the new law will stop landlords increasing rents every six months.”
In any case, there is some good news. While the proposed law doesn’t cap rents or attempt to regulate them, it does provide for mechanisms to settle disputes when it comes to jacking up monthly rates, among other things. How that mechanism will work is unclear.
Photo: Coconuts Media
