Minister of Reconstruction: Iraq needs 250,000 additional housing units annually

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[size=52]Minister of Reconstruction: Iraq needs 250,000 additional housing units annually[/size]

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[size=45]Translated by: Hamed Ahmed
[size=45]Anbar Governorate, in western Iraq, is witnessing a great boom in the real estate sector. In recent years, it has been noted that there has been an increase in the prices of real estate properties, both residential and commercial, in addition to an increase in rents as well.
While this phenomenon is part of a broader housing crisis in Iraq, local and federal authorities are only now realizing the scale of the problem.[/size]
[size=45]As is the case with other regions of the country, the rise in real estate prices and rental fees had a clear impact on the poor and middle class of the people of Anbar.[/size]
[size=45]Abd Alwan Al-Dulaimi, 50 years old, a government employee from the city of Fallujah in Anbar, says that for a long time he dreamed of having a house of his own, but the monthly rent he pays for the house in which he lives, amounting to 350,000 dinars, consumes most of his monthly salary. From the government, amounting to 670 thousand dinars, and he can barely provide food for his family of five.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Dulaimi blames the government for not directly addressing the crisis of rising real estate prices in Anbar, stressing that brokers and owners of real estate offices are the ones who control the high prices of houses and real estate.[/size]
[size=45]The economic researcher, Omar al-Halbousi, says that real estate prices in Anbar province have begun to rise gradually since 2012, indicating that most of the rise is caused by what he called real estate feudal lords and property owners who manipulate the real estate market through money laundering means, and that government officials have acknowledged that this phenomenon Money laundering in the real estate sector has become a national problem.[/size]
[size=45]For her part, the economist and former government advisor, Salam Sumaisem, said that the rich and those who have relations with influential people are the ones who control the Iraqi residential sector market. And she claimed that many of these rich people are worried about investing their money outside Iraq for fear of the possibility of being seized by Western sanctions, and for this they began to invest their money locally inside Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The academic, Ahmed Al-Rawi, says that the fluctuations and rise of the real estate market in other regions of Iraq also affected Anbar.[/size]
[size=45]The narrator continued, that the rise in real estate prices in Baghdad during the past two years motivated many real estate buyers and brokers to search for land and real estate in other nearby cities, and this led to an increase in real estate prices in the eastern regions of Anbar Governorate adjacent to the capital Baghdad, including Fallujah and Ramadi, the center of Anbar Governorate. .[/size]
[size=45]Al-Rawi also pointed out that the return of the displaced from the camps also had a role in the rise in the prices of real estate and rent allowances in Anbar, which is already witnessing an increase in the number of people and its population density.[/size]
[size=45]The economist, Sumaisem, also confirms that bank loans and government support in giving loans to those who want to buy or build houses had, in turn, a role in increasing real estate prices.[/size]
[size=45]The government offered a series of new loans ranging from 50 to 150 million dinars through banks and the housing fund, and the demand for these loans was great. But instead of driving prices down as planned, the result was an increase in demand for real estate and an increase in their prices.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Halbousi, an economic researcher, said that the municipality of Ramadi launched in recent years a wide campaign to raise awareness about manipulation of real estate prices, and added that it was the first step of it to follow up and curb the rise in real estate prices, and that was in coordination between the local government and municipal departments in the governorate, and it was effective in reducing price manipulation.[/size]
[size=45]In another step to address real estate prices, the local authorities in Anbar issued investment licenses to promote the construction and construction of housing units, including the construction of housing units outside the city of Fallujah.[/size]
[size=45]Some observers said that similar steps in other parts of the country may help solve the housing crisis and lead to lower prices, but this view cannot be generalized.[/size]
[size=45]The government economic advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, has a different opinion, and said that investing in residential complexes is actually part of the problem rather than being a solution to it, and one of the reasons for this is due to the geographical locations in which such projects are being held.[/size]
[size=45]Saleh added that the establishment of residential complexes in overcrowded areas with high demand instead of establishing them in less densely populated areas is what caused the prices of housing units in these complexes to rise to very high rates.[/size]
[size=45]The Minister of Construction and Housing, Bankin Rikani, estimates that the country needs approximately 3.5 million housing units to meet the requirements of the current housing crisis.[/size]
[size=45]Rikani said that taking into account the average size of the Iraqi family is five members and that the rate of increase in the number of the population is one million people annually, there is a need for 250 thousand additional housing units each year.[/size]
[size=45]In the meantime, Iraqi citizens from among the general public, such as the citizen Abd Alwan Al-Dulaimi from the people of Fallujah, who dreams of one day having a house of his own, will continue to struggle and struggle in order to achieve their dreams of becoming home owners.[/size]
[size=45]About: (Amwaj Media) news site[/size][/size][/size]


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