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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    "Who can buy it?"... Residential complexes for the rich and money launderers

    Rocky
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    "Who can buy it?"... Residential complexes for the rich and money launderers Empty "Who can buy it?"... Residential complexes for the rich and money launderers

    Post by Rocky Wed 23 Aug 2023, 4:58 am

    "Who can buy it?"... Residential complexes for the rich and money launderers

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    Economy News-Baghdad
    When Iraq began constructing residential complexes only a few years ago, the declared goal was to solve the housing crisis, but lands and real estate turned into a store of value for those who have money instead of keeping cash... for residential complexes that are built for the rich and money launderers.
    Suleiman Saadoun, an employee in the Ministry of Commerce, has been trying for four years to obtain a housing unit to escape the “curse of rent,” as he calls it, but to no avail. 
    The man's salary is barely enough for him until the end of the month, and he is forced to work as a taxi driver to cover the expenses of his family of six. 
    Saadoun followed all the opportunities presented on social networking sites and electronic companies, and after communicating with them, it became clear to him that it was impossible to obtain a housing unit in Baghdad due to its astronomical prices, so he went to the residential complexes on the outskirts of the capital, but they were also offered more than his modest capabilities. 
    “The government and the Investment Authority promised us solutions to the housing crisis that we are suffering from, but we find in many residential complexes a high financial offer and large monthly installments, so how do they expect us to pay those sums?” Saadoun tells Jamar. 
    Most of the prices of residential complexes, as promised by the Investment Commission, do not seem affordable to the middle class and low-income people. In the Zaafaraniya area, which is considered to have a majority of low-income people, the price of one square meter in a residential complex of apartments with an area of ​​158 square meters, which is currently being built, reached 1,350,000. Dinars (about 880 dollars, according to the exchange rate in the market at the time of publishing this report), and payment is made in the form of six payments, between each payment for five months. 
    The price of an apartment of 133 square meters in the Dar Al Salam residential complex exceeds 200 million dinars, and the head of the family needs an amount of 50 million dinars as an advance to purchase it, while the monthly payments amount to one and a half million dinars. As for an apartment of 200 square meters, its cost exceeds 300 million dinars, with a down payment of 78 dinars. One million dinars and a monthly installment exceeding two million dinars. 
    With the increase in the number of housing projects promoting a life of “luxury” in the heart of the capital, Baghdad, voices calling for monitoring the granting of investment licenses and “privileged” lands, and tightening control over the “astronomical” prices at which housing units are sold, are rising. 
    An example of the advertisements for the complexes is the advertisement for the Al-Naseem residential complex in Baghdad, which talks about the provision of “modern apartments designed to meet all the requirements of the Iraqi family in terms of comfort and luxury for a lifetime,” and the advertisement for the Dar Al-Salam residential complex, which includes the provision of “all the requirements of life, including comfort, luxury, and tranquility.” 
    cash store 
    When Iraq began constructing residential complexes only several years ago, the stated goal was to solve the deep-rooted housing crisis. According to Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Iraq “needs to build two and a half million housing units to solve its crisis.” 
    However, these projects, which are widely spread across Baghdad and other provinces, “will not solve the housing crisis,” says Salam Sumaisem, an economist. 
    According to Sumaisem, the simple Iraqi citizen did not reap anything from this expansion by investing in the housing sector except for the insane rise in real estate and land prices due to limited supply and increased demand. 
    The reason for this is the transformation of land and real estate into a store of value for those who own money instead of keeping cash, according to the economist. 
    Prices for the cheapest residential complexes start at $1,000 per meter in remote areas on the outskirts of Baghdad, bringing the price per meter in the heart of the capital to six thousand dollars. 
    And since the goal of these residential complexes, as the expert says, is purely profitable, the result is an increase in the prices of residential units and their transformation into an attractive place for those who have money and are able to pay the luxury prices offered by these projects, which are not within the reach of the ordinary citizen who is supposed to have found these projects. his term. 
    In Sumaisem’s opinion, the owners of these projects “are not investors, but rather people who have a large financial surplus, and none of them was able to smuggle it out of Iraq for many reasons, some of which are related to US sanctions, money laundering measures, or other reasons, so they started exploiting their money inside Iraq.” 
    'rooted' crisis 
    This comes in light of a housing crisis rooted in Iraq since the 1980s, when housing sector projects stopped after the country entered the eight-year war with Iran, according to al-Hindawi. 
    “The housing crisis has produced more than five thousand random settlements throughout Iraq, one thousand of which are in the capital, Baghdad, and 700 in Basra and Nineveh each, while Karbala and Najaf are the least, with 98 and 99, respectively, and three million and 400,000 people live in these slums.” Al-Hindawi tells Jamar. 
    This crisis increases every year by about 200 thousand units annually if the annual increase in the number of the population in Iraq is calculated. 
    This crisis calls for radical solutions, including the adoption of a law on slums that is currently being drafted by the government to be presented to Parliament, according to al-Hindawi. 
    Sumaisem points out that the housing crisis in Iraq has had serious repercussions on the nature of life, because the slums that resulted lack the basics of life, and the phenomenon of property division has emerged until the areas of a large number of homes have reached 50 square meters or less, and this leads to the distortion of cities. The decline in the level of services and, consequently, the quality of life that citizens deserve. 
    Money laundering and “legal” privileges 
    The economist does not rule out the existence of corruption in the transfer of residential projects to companies, based on the fact that it is not easy for the investor or the ordinary businessman to obtain these exceptions and land in these distinguished locations, some of which are priced at half a million US dollars. 
    As for the oversight of these projects, it is considered unsatisfactory, as Sumaisem recalls. Some projects announced the price per square meter at $700, and as soon as the first phase was completed, the prices were doubled. There are other projects in charge of which the funds were handed over and delayed in implementation without being held accountable. 
    “Therefore, we say that administrative corruption or political influence has an imprint on the work of these companies, as no one punishes them or actually follows them up,” Sumaisem adds. 
    The opinion of Walid al-Sahlani, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, coincides with the economist’s opinion, as he also excludes that housing complex projects that are referred through investment, especially those that are being built in Baghdad, “are part of the solution to the housing problem in Iraq.” 
    Iraq, says Al-Sahlani, suffers from an accumulation of deficit in the number of housing units that are supposed to be built annually, which must be commensurate with the annual population increase. 
    “As for their prices, they are very exorbitant and do not match the income of citizens,” Al-Sahlani tells Jamar. 
    According to the deputy, the lands are granted free of charge or at very cheap prices to the owners of companies who sell their meters for thousands of dollars after building complexes in them. 
    Al-Sahlani states that Iraq needs four million housing units to solve the housing crisis, "and this is a very large number that is not easy to implement in the short term." 
    The problem is due to the investment law, which provided great facilities for investors, and sometimes land is granted at low prices or for free in order to implement housing projects, “as it is assumed that part of the housing units will be distributed for free, but this is not implemented.” 
    The member of the House of Representatives seemed displeased with leaving the matter of estimating the price of the housing unit in residential projects to the investor: “Certain conditions must be put in place with regard to profits. 
    Advantages of investment law 
    The Iraqi investment law granted many advantages and exceptions, according to Muthanna Al-Ghanmi, spokesman for the Investment Authority, within Article 10 of Law No. 13 of 2006 as amended. 
    This article provides many advantages and guarantees for the Iraqi or foreign investor, including the right to own land and real estate belonging to the state for a fee that determines the basis for its calculation according to a special system, and he has the right to own land and real estate belonging to the mixed and private sectors for the purpose of establishing housing projects exclusively. 
    It also granted investors the right to establish housing projects as an exception to the provisions of Law No. 32 of 1986 on the Sale and Lease of State Funds or any other law that replaces it. 
    Article 15 of the law stipulates that “a project that has obtained an investment license from the Commission shall enjoy exemption from taxes and fees for a period of ten years from the date of start-up,” and it can be extended to 15 years if the proportion of Iraqi investment is 50 percent. 
    The solution is to build “new complexes” 
    It seems that the Iraqi government is unable to solve the problem of exaggerated prices for housing units, and therefore announced the offer of new investment opportunities to build housing complexes for people with low incomes and the middle class. 
    Al-Ghanimi stated that the work of the Investment Authority is related to only a few projects, including the Basmaya complex, the largest residential investment project, which attracts the Iraqi middle class. 
    “The authority is serious about activating market mechanisms to set prices, in a sound environment that guarantees the rights of both the investor and the consumer, as the current government program strongly supports the investment file in the country, and the current trend is focused on establishing new cities similar to the city of Bismayah,” says Al-Ghanmi. 
    We did not get answers from the speaker regarding the land prices that were granted to investors, as this matter is “related to the economic and technical department.” 
    As for the inflated unit prices, work is currently underway to “form a committee to follow up on the matter, and to designate those who do not adhere to the prices established in the project’s economic feasibility study,” according to Al-Ghanmi. 
    The investment law did not include setting selling prices, leaving the matter to competition among investors. However, the law prohibits speculation in prices after choosing the investment company. 
    “For the rich only” 
    “Jammar” surveyed a number of Baghdad residents about their ability to purchase housing units in the complexes that are currently being built, and most of the participants criticized the exaggerated prices of these units as being beyond the ability of any person with a limited or medium income. 
    The Investment Commission does not have statistics on the number of residential complexes established in Iraq since 2003 until now, and what Jamar was able to count is 46 residential complexes in Baghdad alone. 
    It is also not known the number and areas of lands granted for the establishment of residential complexes in various cities of Iraq, as many sectoral authorities grant these lands, and each governorate is responsible for granting lands for the construction of complexes, which makes counting and counting them difficult. 
    There are promises from the government to implement 15 housing complexes in each governorate that will be suitable for people with limited incomes, but it has not made tangible steps in these projects so far. 
     
    Source / Jamar website


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