The course of rents from a district to another

Everything is up to the district and the owner. A surveyed family living in the Ambatomitsangana-Behoririka district is renting a house made of three rooms, with kitchen, shower and inner toilets for the cost of 250 000 ariary; Less than 500 meters from there, in the Mandialaza-Andravoahangy district, another family rents a house made of a kitchen, a shower and inner toilets, terrace, a couple of rooms on the second floor and three other rooms, one of them though equalling the size of the first family’s whole three rooms, all that for 300 000 ariary a month. 

Let’s suppose, then, that you want to rent a house, let’s say an “apartment”, in an area tagged as “low district”; owners based in these districts are renting their apartments for terrifying prices. In addition to the right of visit, the owner is often requiring a bail if you are bound to move in. Some would be asking for one month’s rent to repair the possible damages that you would cause in the house. Others would require the same as three months’ rent as a guarantee in case of an eventual tenant’s departure within the first three months. In the former case, the guarantee would serve to repair eventual damages and would be paid back, in absence of damages, at your departure. In the second case, just forget the money. 

Some owners are resorting to mediators (mpanera) to find tenants. Others don’t like those mediators. If you are renting a house found out thanks to a mediator’s help, the man will ask between 50 and 75% of one month’s rent as a reward. But if you are buying a house though an individual mediator, he will ask for nothing from you in exchange because he has a deal on his share with the home owner. 

Well, who said that finding a house was an easy job?