"We were hoping that everyone would jump at this, but it was rather the opposite, we had to fight for every penny," says Ur and Penn's CEO Abed al Saffar.
In order for the stores to be able to take advantage of the support, the property owner must first agree to lower the rent for the store. The state then enters and compensates the property owner with half of the rent reduction. And it has not always been possible to agree between the shop owners and the property owners.
- It's bad. We get back answers that are in fact correct and which say that the property owners have no obligation to offer support, says Abed al Saffar.
According to the trade association Svenska Handel's survey of 500 companies, only just under 40 percent of the companies that lost more than half of their turnover have so far received a discount on rent. The discussions between the shop owners and property owners have often been intense, from both sides there is irritation over the counterparty's actions and that the negotiations on the rents now take a lot of energy in the middle of the crisis.
- We would have to think about how we arm ourselves, instead we have to spend time on this from both sides, says Abed al Saffar.
Business Minister Ibrahim Baylan announces via his press secretary that he does not have time for an interview about the rental subsidy, but says in a written comment that today there are more companies that have lowered rent than in a previous survey and that he hopes that figure will rise.