Landlords  of Rivers State Housing Estate at Iriebe, near Oyigbo have given reasons for the reduction in house rents in the estate.
Spokesperson for the Landlords Association, of the estate, Matthias Iheanacho, who spoke to The Tide at the weekend, stated that, the landlords noticed that it was becoming increasingly difficult for tenants to pay up their rents due to the adverse economic situation in the country.
According to him, “the economy of the nation is in recession and most of our tenants here are civil servants who earn minimum wage”.
Iheanacho noted that, presently, landlords were cutting as much as 20 percent from rents to enable their  tenants continue to live in the estates, and not render the houses vacant, which could provide hideout for criminals.
He said, “right now, we are cutting rents by as much as 20 percent, so our tenants could pay rents, if we don’t do that, our houses would lie vacant and criminals would come and occupy and carryout neferous activities from there”
The Tide gathered that a one-bedroom, which used to go for between N120,000 and N150,000.00, now goes for N120,000.00 at the highest, a two-bedroom, which was N250,000.00 at most, is now N200,000.00 while a three bedroom now goes for between N250,000.00 and N270,000.00 down from between N270,000.00 and N300,000.00.
He appealed to the government on prompt payment of salaries, while working into reviewing the current minimum wage.

Tonye Nria-Dappa