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Muscat: A young Indian graphic designer is spending sleepless nights as he cannot find an abode to bring his wife while a young Omani working girl has no choice but share a three-bedroom apartment with nine other working girls in Muscat.
The two youngsters are at the receiving of soaring rents and the so called shortage of apartments for the middle income residents in the Omani capital.
"I changed job and returned to Oman in November last year after getting married during the break between the two jobs but since then I have been running from pillar to post in vain to find an affordable two-bedroom flat so that I can bring my wife here," Harvesh Modh, a graphic designer with an international firm, told Gulf News.
Harvesh, who has to depend on public transport to commute, put his struggle in perspective. "I have changed two pairs of shoes as I walked a lot for my house hunting," he said with a wry smile.
Sharing accommodation
The soft-spoken designer said there are vacant apartments but brokers are quoting inflated rents.
"I have seen several empty flats but either rents are too high or brokers hand it over to the one who quotes higher price," he said.
He even said some brokers take token amount and don't return it.
"They keep saying that we will show you flats and if you work through us we will settle it with the commission," he said.
On one hand he spends a lot of time hunting for house and on the other has to keep his wife and in-laws in good humour. "When I left my previous job I had no idea that I will have to struggle so long to get a decent, affordable house here," he said.
While house-hunting, Harvesh has found a soul-mate. "Another young Indian - Neil - is also struggling to find a house to bring his wife, so we are even ready to rent a bigger apartment and share it," he said.
The designer artist, who has been staying at a hotel apartment since November last year, said with this house worry, he hardly finds time to pursue his hobby of painting.
"For a long time I have been thinking of holding an exhibition of my paintings in Oman but my first priority is to find a house," he said.
While Harvesh and Neil reflect the expatriates' struggle to find an affordable house, a young Omani office secretary also finds rents too steep to afford her own house. "The rents are too high and makes it difficult for youngsters like us. So we 10 girls share a three-bedroom apartment," Fathiya Bint Darwish Abdullah Al Sajri told Gulf News.
Fathiya works as an executive secretary with the American Life Insurance Company in Muscat and comes from Suwaiq, 135km north of Muscat.
Wondering when the rents will come down in Muscat, Fathiya said many young Omani girls and boys share apartments as they come to Muscat for employment from the different regions of the country.
Continuing increase
A senior official of a property developer believes that there's enough supply of rented houses in the city.
"There are a substantial number of residential properties available for rent but many of these are asking above the traditional market rates and growth so they tend to sit idle for months," said Amer Al Fadhil, Vice-President, External Affairs, of the Wave freehold property project.
Gus Freeman, Managing Director of Arabian Research Bureau, told Gulf News evidence from Consumer Price Index for Muscat shows that the increases are gathering pace and getting faster.
"I think Muscat will see continued increases for some years," he commented.
Only time will tell when people like Harvesh and Fathiya will get to rent a decent affordable apartment in Muscat and pursue their respective hobbies without worrying about house-hunting.
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