Demolitions push tenants to the wall Vacation over. One month's worth of visiting friends and neighbours, But on return to a very sunny Doha, you have to move out. The landlord has decided to demolish the building you live in to make way for a 12-storey tower, sanctioned by the erstwhile Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture. Residents in the building - located in Najma-were paying QR2,800 per month as rent. Now the tenants find themselves looking here and there for a place to stay. A doctor couple has been forced to move and they are now paying QR11,000 for an apartment in West Bay. The building in Najma housed 18 families. All of them are now pretty much homeless. Those willing to rent out premises are charging up to QR5,000 for a single room. A tenant of the building about to be demolished said: "Three families have already left. We are busy looking for a place to live, but the rents are way too much. I only get a measly housing allowance from my company." An executive bachelor living there said: "I have been living out of suitcases for the last two-and-a-half years. I should be given an award as I have moved so many times. Sometimes I feel like a refugee." The new building will have a rent of QR8,000 an apartment, which few of the folks residing there, i.e. the old building, can afford. A tenant told The Peninsula: "I have a family with three children. Where can I go? I have been living here for eight years and to be told to leave is unbelievable. I am seriously thinking of sending my family back home. This place has become unaffordable." In 2007, 495 buildings were demolished in the city. The figure is likely to be higher this year. With work for the New Doha International Airport going on, buildings are behind demolished right and left. And where the tenants go, nobody knows. the peninsula

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