Shafaq News
On the quiet outskirts of Baghdad, Ala Khalid spreads a rug beside a small swimming pool as his children run between pomegranate and orange trees. Their laughter, he says, is a welcome escape from the capital’s constant noise. For Khalid, renting a recreational farm has become more than a weekend outing — it is now a family ritual.
In recent years, such farms have become one of the city’s most popular leisure options. With limited housing space, few public parks, and scarce green areas, families increasingly turn to rented farmland for holidays and social gatherings.
“Going to the farm has replaced traveling or visiting malls and restaurants,” Khalid told Shafaq News. “The rental offers are affordable, and the locations are close to the city, so there is no worry in case of emergencies.”
Rental prices start at about 150,000 Iraqi dinars (around $115) for a 12-hour shift and can reach 600,000 dinars (about $460) for a full day, depending on location and facilities.
For many landowners, the shift has offered a lifeline. Years of water shortages and failed farming or fish-breeding projects pushed them toward a new market. Ali al-Haj, who owns several farms east of Baghdad, said, “I lost a lot due to failed crops and cheap imports. But when friends asked to rent one of my farms for events, I began converting them into leisure farms. Now my booking calendar is full year-round.”
With rising demand, investors are building new sites ranging from a quarter of a dunam (roughly 600 square meters) to several dunams. Facilities often include guest houses, swimming pools, football fields, barbecue areas, and, in some cases, saunas, Jacuzzis, and heated pools for winter use.
Bushra, a lawyer in her forties, purchased a farm with her family in the Mada’in district, southeast of Baghdad. “It is a comfortable and profitable investment,” she said. “People want to spend time in nature without the hassle of travel, and we provide that.”
Although privately owned, the farms operate under strict administrative and security oversight. They cannot open without municipal and security licenses and must maintain safety standards, permanent staff, and regular maintenance. Marketing has shifted online, with farms promoted on specialized websites and social media platforms.
Once limited to tourist towns in the Kurdistan Region, such as Shaqlawa, Al-Sulaymaniyah, and Duhok, or to older resorts like Habbaniyah west of Baghdad, leisure farms now extend outward from the capital to Saladin, Kirkuk, and even parts of southern Iraq.
For many families, they offer the greenery long absent from their neighborhoods. They have also generated a small parallel economy, employing hundreds of young people as guards, cleaners, cooks, and drivers — rare opportunities in Iraq’s volatile labor market.
Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.