Africa 24 feature news

“I have been looking for a room and a parlour to rent but still I have not got one,” says a woman who goes on a search for a new place to live with her family.

She is among a growing number of people who are finding it very difficult to adjust to the new life in Waterloo in the Western Area Rural District. Most have just left the capital because it has overcrowded with residents which has caused the rents to be ever expensive for people. So many people now have abandoned the city to live in the rural-urban in Waterloo town and its surroundings.

“I used to live in Freetown and I was paying for a year LeN2,000 for a room and a palour on the hillside at Leicester road community, which is in the west of Freetown,”said the woman. This money is hard for her to afford as a petty trader. “When you are evicted or you leave a place, it is difficult for you to get another due to the non-availability of places to rent in Freetown anywhere. Some landowners are asking for two years payment of about LeN15 in some areas.”

“The city is choked with people,” she added.

“That is why we have moved to Waterloo for ease, but it seems overcrowding is gradually taking place here as well,”she said.

While Freetown house owners could charge people sometimes for a room and a palour around Le2,000 in the year 2019-20, it would cost one Le5,000 for a similar not-decent home ( a room and a palour) now in Waterloo.

This means house rents are charged higher in most places in Waterloo now than fewer at cost in some places at some hill-top environments in Freetown. The price difference is seen in the absence of electricity in most parts in Waterloo yet people are paying for the living rooms expensive now.

But in the middle of the city the house rents are pretty expensive for residents as compared to a similar decent homes that one can rent in Waterloo.