House and shop rents reach record prices in Baghdad.. Who controls the real estate market?

Posted on[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]House and shop rents reach record prices in Baghdad.. Who controls the real estate market?[/size]

[size=45]In light of the economic and security tension in the Middle East, the capital Baghdad is witnessing a significant increase in rental prices, whether for homes, company offices or shops, which has led Iraqis to leave the capital and seek refuge in its administrative outskirts or other governorates, as Baghdad is unique in its exorbitant rental prices.
Each area in Baghdad has its own prices, as the prices of homes in the Karrada neighborhood next to Rusafa range between $800 and $1,500, while apartments are stable between $500 and $800. But in the Yarmouk neighborhood next to Karkh, rents are higher, as some homes reach $3,000 per month. However, these numbers decline in some popular and poor neighborhoods, such as Al-Bayaa, Al-Doura and others.
Baghdad is unique in its high rental prices, unlike all governorates of the country where the rental price of a home or apartment does not exceed the normal limit, which is less than $300.
Observers attribute the high rental prices in the Iraqi capital to population density and the shortage of housing units, not to mention the entry of money laundering into the real estate trade, which has significantly raised the prices of buying, selling and renting.
The gap in the housing sector in Iraq is estimated at more than two and a half million housing units, to meet the need or demand for housing, in light of the continuous population increase of more than one million people every year, which has caused prices to rise as a result of the increasing demand with the scarcity of supply in the real estate market.
Slums of the capital
The spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, says that “the capital Baghdad is the most in need compared to the rest of the governorates, due to its population weight estimated at more than 9 million people,” indicating that “this density leads to the birth of slums in some areas, and it also increases the rental prices of houses and apartments, so the government’s direction is moving towards building new residential cities that meet the need for housing units.”
However, the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing had previously estimated that Iraq needs about 3 million housing units to reduce or address the stifling housing crisis in Iraq, which represents a future challenge for governments in light of the high population increase.
This crisis has prompted the current government to issue loans to build housing units, but Iraqis are struggling to obtain land plots, especially since agricultural land is available, while residential land is constantly rising in price.
Falah Ali (54 years old), who lives in a rented house in Mansour, Baghdad, says, “Rental prices are very high in Baghdad, compared to Erbil, where the rent of a house reaches $1,000, while in the Kurdistan Region in the north of the country, it does not exceed $400.” He stressed that “the parties are involved in the rise in house selling and renting prices, because they have taken over the real estate sector and have begun to buy large numbers of houses in upscale areas in order to launder their stolen public money.”
Ali added, “The governments have not thought of establishing a mechanism to unify or regulate the process of selling and renting houses, shops, or real estate in general, but rather, through the participating parties, they have exploited all state resources and converted them into private property, then purchased real estate at high prices, which has led to rising prices.”
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing, work is underway to complete 16 housing projects, within the low-cost housing, and the housing units completed for these projects are distributed among the categories specified in the National Housing Council, which are segments of employees with middle incomes.
The ministry talks about two generations of new residential cities, the first generation includes five cities (Al-Jawahiri, Ali Al-Wardi, Al-Ghazlani, Dafaf Karbala, and Al-Janain), and these cities will support the housing sector with more than 225 thousand housing units.
As for the second generation, it will be 6 cities (Al-Majar Al-Kabir in Maysan, Al-Warka in Muthanna, Al-Balad in Salah Al-Din, Ur in Dhi Qar, Al-Salam in Najaf, and Al-Mutanabbi in Wasit). The ministry seeks to provide a large number of sustainable housing units, within cities in which urban land uses are integrated with an economic basis in these cities, and to contribute to withdrawing high population densities from within the centers to these new cities.
The role of political money
For his part, Iraqi researcher Muhammad Imran says, “The government does not abide by any law regulating rental mechanisms and prices, and there is a large disparity between one region and another, knowing that most Iraqi regions lack services, including upscale areas, but political money is what drives this file,” noting that “there is a real need to put in place mechanisms that prevent property owners from raising prices annually.”
Housing is a legitimate right guaranteed by the Iraqi constitution in Article 30, which obliges the state to provide social and health security and to provide suitable housing and income, but Iraqis do not obtain this right. Rather, the demand for housing and a decent life was one of the basic demands of Iraqis in the protests that erupt from time to time.
According to legal expert Ali Al-Tamimi, “high rent prices require a law, and Iraq is the highest country in the world in terms of rent and housing prices, and eliminating this phenomenon is done by making the rent rate appropriate to the citizen’s income and eliminating greed,” explaining that “high rent prices have caused many cases of suicide and divorce.”[/size]
[size=45]Source: Al-Araby Al-Jadeed[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]