Landlord denies packing students in like sardines - The Star 10 April 2009

But investigations find communes to be overpopulated and in a deplorable state

By Candice Bailey

A Joburg slumlord is alleged to be coining more than R1 million a month from 80 overcrowded student communes.

However, Sayed Abdollah Hoseini says he is merely providing much needed student accommodation in the area, of which there is a dire shortage in Joburg.

Two weeks ago the Saturday Star revealed that Hoseini was linked to more than 80 communes in and around Auckland Park, Melville, Westdene, Brixton and Vrededorp, raking in rent of R1m a month.
In one of his communes, the Saturday Star reported, Hoseini had crammed more than 80 people into a 64-roomed mega commune, which sprawled over two properties.Students at the 64-bedroom house in Second Avenue, Westdene, were being charged R1 600 for a single six-square- meter room and R1 200 per person sharing a double room.
Working on a minimum rental yield of R1 600 a room, the fully let property would bring in R100 000 a month to Hoseini despite accusations from students living there that the conditions were inhumane.

Students who spoke to the Saturday Star, told of one room with no windows, while others had windows that could not open. Another of the rooms had been converted into a bedroom from a shower.

This week Hoseini hit back, saying the property had been bought six to eight years ago and that when he wanted to convert it into a 16-bedroom house he was stopped by the city council, which subsequently lost his building plans.He said he had to have students living in the house because it was a running cost that had to be paid. Hoseini denied that he made more than R1m a month in rent, saying he owned only six properties in his personal capacity and a further three through his companies UniHome, Bureau Accommodation and Magadie Homes.

Each of the communes housed only 10 to 15 people and the commercial building housed between 40 and 60 people, he said. "It's impossible to have 80 properties. It is a complete lie. I don't have 80 properties. I wish I had an income anything close to this figure. "We all know that the property business is a loan-based business. We are all working for the banks. I can prove that for the last two years I was running this business at a loss," he said.

But the Saturday Star understands that officials in the City of Johannesburg have linked Hoseini to 75 properties and have been investigating links to several others. A city council official said not all the properties were registered in Hoseini's name as some were registered in the names of relatives.

This week the Saturday Star visited one of the buildings Hoseini owns in Vrededorp.Although Hoseini said his commercial building housed only between 40 and 60 people, the Saturday Star found that it had been converted into an overcrowded 104-room commune.The three-story building is at 38 8th Street in Vrededorp.There is only one kitchen per floor to serve the 30 rooms on that floor. The kitchens contain contain three two-plate burners and three fridges.There are about five toilets per floor and none has proper doors, only shower curtains. All the showers are unisex. The rooms are R1 600 for a single room. It is understood that there are also double rooms but that there were students sharing single rooms. With around 90 of the 104 rooms in the commune in operation, Hoseini is estimated to earn more than R140 000 a month from this commune.

A third-year student, who lives at the commune, spoke to the Saturday Star on condition of anonymity."The conditions are deplorable," he said.There was one TV room in the entire house which was in the basement, he said. "The kitchens are deplorable. The rooms are deplorable. The bathrooms are deplorable."He said that while the commune was supposed to be fitted with DSTV, the decoder was not there and while there were several washing machines on different floors, only one worked on the second floor, which most of the students used.

The individual bedroom which the Saturday Star saw could only fit a single bed, but would still accommodate a cupboard and a desk. The room is about 1m wide and less than 6m long. Another student said she was ashamed to say she lived there. "It is supposed to have weekly cleaning services, DSTV and be a quiet environment, but there is always noise, no DSTV and the place is dirty. The windows don't open."Some of the rooms are built in the middle of the property and have windows that open up on to the passage or staircase and have no fresh air.

Hoseini denied that the conditions at the Vrededorp commune were "unlivable". "What is overcrowded? Overcrowded by whose definition?" asked Hoseini.He said: "There are 45 000 students that need accommodation close to their school. "If the city council and universities are serious about addressing the issue, they can allocate a large piece of land and by 2012, I will accommodate 20 000 students."

Published on the web by Star on April 10, 2009.
© Star 2009. All rights reserved.