Paying Rent of 1 million/- per Square Metre per Month
by lute wa lutengano
I remember some years ago when I first flew to New York. I believe it was
sometimes in the mid 1980s. Luckily, and I emphasize Luckily, my first
experience of the US was New York. I say so because this happens to be the Big
Apple as the American love to call it. Therefore it was fitting introduction to
the American way of life.
You have to remember that in those years, Bongoland, that is Tanzania, was far
from being globalised. It was a land where everything was rationed including
your evening beer, not to say of bread, toothpaste, cleaning and washing soap,
toilet paper, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola or Double Cola, and everything else.
So landing in New York gave me the opportunity to replenish not only my
wardrobe, but such basic items like toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet soap,
knickers, socks, perfumes, shaving creams and the like. But that is another
story all together.
It was while shopping for clothing that I realised that there were, just like in
any city in the world, two extreme shopping systems. One was located somewhere
on the 14th Street, and the other along the Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in New
York. The two are worlds apart. A shirt one would get for say US$ 10 on the 14th
Street would easily go for US$80 on Fifth Avenue.
This also reminded me of London, where similar separate worlds exist for
shoppers in Liverpool Street and Shepard’s Bush as against Oxford Street. Or in
Dar es Salaam – Independence (or is it Samora) Avenue as against Kariakoo.
It goes to without saying that one has got to be streetwise in any city. Before
you lunge yourself to buy anything on any street, find out the realities on the
ground on price variations for same items in different
shopping centres.
I had forgotten about these experiences until a few days ago when I came across
an article justifying these disparities. Being a Bongolandian, it was a shocking
revelation. How can you expect me not to be boggled by a rent of US$ 10,226 –
about 13 million/- - per square metre per year. That is the going average rate
on the Fifth Avenue in New York.
Accordingly the Fifth Avenue is rated the world’s most expensive shopping
street. Paris’s Champs Elysees is rated as the most expensive European street.
Here the going rate per square metre is Sterling Pounds 4,248 – about 10
million/-. It is followed by four London locations – Oxford Street (Sterling
Pounds 3,090), Bond Street (Sterling Pounds 3,036), Convent Garden (Sterling
Pounds 2,848) and Brompton Road.
If you thought this bug affects only the first world metropolitan centres, read
this article by one Abdul Kenge, which appeared in The East African of November
1-7 2004; “Many Dar es Salaam businesses are moving out of the City’s central
business district to residential areas on the outskirts of
the city to avoid high rents.”
Kenge goes on to write that while rents in the central business district range
between US$ 18 - $ 30 per square metre per month, those in the outlying areas
are between US$ 10 – 12 per square metre per month.
The outlying suburbs in Dar es Salaam where businesses are relocating include
the Ubungo Plaza, the now under construction Milimani City near the
University of Dar es Salaam, which is to house the largest retail complex in Dar
es Salaam, Mayfair Plaza in Kinondoni, and several others.
Items in these shopping complexes will still be more expensive than in Kariakoo.
But then Kariakoo has its own hazards, including congestion and not to mention
the ever present danger of being mugged. The choice is still yours! It still
boggles my mind to think of paying a rent of 13 million/- per square metre per
year – that is more than 1 million/- per square metre per month.
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lutengano@hotmail.com
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