22/09/2026
🏠 WHEN RENT INCREASES BECOME NORMALISED EXPLOITATION
A student should not need another scholarship simply to afford a room near campus.
Across Africa, the shortage of affordable student accommodation has created opportunities for excessive rent increases, hidden charges and exploitative practices. Cameroon 🇨🇲 is no exception.
In university communities such as Buea, Bamenda, Yaoundé, Douala and other towns, some landlords and landladies have normalised increasing rents without renovating or improving their properties.
In many cases:
❌ Rent is increased without reasonable notice
❌ Agents and middlemen inflate prices and demand excessive commissions
❌ Tenants pay unexplained compound-maintenance charges
❌ Students pay separately for unreliable water and electricity
❌ Poorly maintained rooms are rented at unjustifiable prices
❌ Written tenancy agreements and receipts are not provided
Property owners deserve fair returns on their investments, especially amid rising construction and maintenance costs. However, ownership must never become permission to exploit students and struggling families.
Parents are already paying tuition fees, transportation, food, books, healthcare and other educational expenses. Unreasonable rent increases can force students into overcrowded, unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, ultimately affecting their health, dignity and academic performance.
Where are our municipal authorities, universities, consumer-protection institutions and Members of Parliament? Affordable student housing should be treated as an educational and social priority—not merely as a private transaction.
Equally troubling is the silence of many bloggers, social media influencers, vloggers, public figures and role models. People with large platforms regularly discuss trending controversies, entertainment and celebrity gossip, yet many remain silent on an issue directly affecting students and struggling families.
When influential voices repeatedly ignore exploitation that affects the people who follow and support them, their silence risks becoming complicity. Influence should not only be used for visibility and profit; it should also amplify the concerns of vulnerable citizens and demand accountability.
Tenants and parents must also stop suffering silently. Document the charges, request written agreements and receipts, organise responsibly and report abusive practices. Silence only strengthens exploitation.
This is not an attack on every landlord, landlady or agent. Many remain fair and responsible. It is a call for:
✅ Transparent and reasonable rent increases
✅ Regulation of agents and brokerage fees
✅ Written tenancy agreements and receipts
✅ Minimum housing and sanitation standards
✅ Clear justification for additional charges
✅ Effective complaint and mediation mechanisms
✅ Greater investment in affordable student hostels
There must be social solidarity among landlords, tenants, parents, students, universities and public authorities. One party should not live comfortably by pushing another into hardship.
I speak as an educator and civic leadership advocate. If you disagree, engage respectfully and present meaningful arguments. Do not come into my inbox with insults, threats or personal attacks because I won't tolerate any. Let the public conversation remain public, factual and constructive.
Have you experienced an unjustified rent increase, excessive agent fee or hidden housing charge in an African university community especially Cameroon?
Share your experience respectfully. Silence will not solve this crisis.
