Some tenants in Kigali’s commercial buildings are still struggling to pay rent arrears that date back from March 2020 when the country was put on total lock-down to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. And now, some landlords have asked their tenants to vacate the premises if they cannot afford. The total lockdown was in place from March 21 to May 4, and during this period, numerous tenants renting commercial spaces in Kigali’s commercial buildings were not working. This prompted a number of relatively generous landlords to defer, reduce or suspend the rent payments for their clients during the month of April or March. However, some landlords asked their clients to pay full amount, (allowed them to pay at a later date though), while some even raised the rental fees within the crisis time. Such was not easy for businesses, and The New Times understands that there are some tenants that quit rental space in particular buildings. Such cases happened in buildings in Kigali’s Central Business District where some tenants had their rental fees increased. “Before the lockdown, they had told us that they would increase the rent fees, which they went ahead and did despite the lockdown. They have not given us any discount as if they are not aware of the problem that is affecting the world,” said a business person who runs a shop at a commercial Down Town building located at the city centre. Concerning the payments of the rental fees, the tenants were allowed deferred payments, allowing them to pay arrears in July, August and September. Lambert Ngenzi the Property Manager of Down Town building said some tenants were using covid-19 as an excuse not to pay their rent. “In a business like this, people come and go. I cannot say that it happened in Covid-19 time alone. Even before such things used to happen,” he said. He explained that the hike in rental fees happened to tenants whose contracts stipulated that there had to be an increase in their rent at that particular time. He, however, said that his building assisted tenants who requested to pay in instalments, allowing them to do so. The Kigali City Mall (former Union Trade Centre) also has a story of difficulty for tenants. Here, the administration did not increase fees for clients. However, according to a tenant we spoke to, there were no waivers despite months of no operations. “The renting fees of March and April were paid in those months as usual, and there was no discount or anything,” said a business person running a stationery business in the mall. She also said that many tenants have opted out of the building. Up to now, business is still low, working hours are reduced with a curfew in place and tenants want property owners to be more lenient especially with businesses that were hit the hardest. Charles Haba, the Managing Director of Century Real Estates, a company that manages a number of buildings in town singled out travel agencies as one of the businesses that are still struggling. He added that a number of those that were renting space in properties his company manages closed shop for a while, though they are now slowly resuming as commercial flights pick up. Olivier Mazimpaka the Managing Director of CHIC Complex also said that some businesses, though very few, have stopped operating in the building, for example, those that were dealing in wedding related services. Most commercial buildings, if not all, in town have bank loans to service, and to do this, they rely on rent payments. Despite the pandemic being a hard time, banks expected loan payments from the buildings (though there were some means put in place to ease payments). For instance, Mazimpaka told The New Times that CHIC pays about 200 million Rwandan Francs to banks every month and if the tenants do not pay, they will be at high risk of defaulting on their loans.
