Property owners, developers advised to support tenants

Business Bureau, Gulf Today

While some real estate managers persist on collecting the rents, or the payments and installments due under the current circumstances, the real estate expert Walid Al Zarouni called on owners and developers in the UAE to launch an initiative #Landlords of Benevolence to support the tenants and help them overcome these emergency situations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

His initiative #Landlords of Benevolence aims to directly support tenants by exempting them from rents for a period of no less than 3 months, extensible, taking into account their current conditions resulting from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative also encourages owners to take a humane approach to tenants at the crisis time.

Walid Al Zarouni, who heads the ‘W Capital’ Real Estate Brokerage Company, said that the landlords’ initiative to exempt tenants from paying rents for commercial areas and units for a period of three to six months, reflects their commitment to social responsibility through supporting investors and the national economy.These hard times require each of us to bear his part of the burden of a social responsibility for his own benefit and for the community’s interest as a whole.

He stressed the importance of the mitigation decisions specially the exemption, not only postponing rents payment for a period of at least three months, which could be extended depending on further developments provided they are proven to be affected. This will apply not only to commercial real estate but also residential units.

Al-Zarouni explained that the initiative provides actual solutions that will pay off and will not harm the landlord or the tenant, but rather benefit the two parties, as the tenant exemption from 3 months helps the landlord in the first place, because the tenant’s shift from the real estate unit, especially the commercial, will cost the landlord twice the cost of the proposed exemption, which is three months. The landlord will not be able to find a replacement for his unit at the same rental price, and the unit will remain vacant for a long time under these conditions.

He said that this initiative enhances the relationship of investors and the owners in a manner that insures reserving the interests of all parties, as well as distributing the burden in parallel. At the end of the crisis when everything becomes normal again, the owners can negotiate a slight increase in the rental value with the tenants.

Walid Al-Zarouni said, that adopting measures by real estate owners to support tenants will enhance the strategic partnership being developed in between over the past years.

The “Landlords of Benevolence “ initiative coincides with the month of Ramadan, as it is a month of bounty and generosity, benevolence and charity, a month of communication and solidarity, which makes the initiative of great resonance in the hearts of landlords, real estate owners and developers in the UAE.Walid Al Zarouni praised some owners’ initiatives to exempt tenants for several months, which reflects their self-motivated and voluntary efforts and their sense of social responsibility.