Real Estate crisis in Iraq: Price of residential land in Nasiriyah buys a luxurious mansion in Istanbul

Shafaq News / "The real estate situation in Iraq, and Nasiriyah in particular, is catastrophic”, Haidar, a citizen from Nasiriyah seeking a property or land to build a house for his family, "It is implausible. The price of land near the road equals that of a massive mansion in Turkey equipped with a swimming pool and a large garden on a sea view."

Haidar elaborated, "Real estate prices have sky-rocketed in Dhi Qar. Those who want to settle and start a life have to work for at least 20 years to buy land or a house."

"Middle-income people started buying agricultural lands to build their houses because they cannot afford to buy a 200-square-meter land at a price sometimes up to 600 million Iraqi dinars," he added.  

He called on the government to "devise a plan to organize real estate chaos, bolster land distributions, grant residential soft loans, and prevent price manipulators from abusing the efforts of low- and middle-income." 

"Many reasons are behind the rise in real estate prices in Dhi Qar, including the municipality's irregular distribution of lands. Instead of allocating lands that are close to the cities, they are giving remote areas that lack services, which makes it impossible to live there in the foreseeable future," said Kadhim Zughair, a real estate specialist.

He added, "There are other reasons for the rise of real estate prices in Nasiriyah. Tribes acquire and sell land around cities illegally in areas with no services, random housing that occurred in the outskirts of the cities and inside them as a result of the displacement of thousands from villages and rural areas, and the significant increase in population in Dhi Qar that cannot be ignored as it does not commensurate with the existing lands and houses."

"So far, there have been no scientific and logical explanations for the general rise of real estate in Dhi Qar; the city has no economic qualifications, like Basra or Maysan, which shares borders with Iran. The only distinctive thing in Nasiriyah is the population that is relentlessly increasing", said Alaa, a citizen from Nasiriyah, who recently finished building his house.

He added, "The city lacks services and projects, and unemployment and poverty rates are rising. I do not have any hope for this city, and I do not think it can promote a beneficial economic idea. There is nothing but chaos as the administrative and political gaps are clearly reflected in the governorate in general."

For his part, Dhi Qar's governor, Ahmed Al-Khafaji, stated, "We have drawn up two plans to reduce the lands' prices in Nasiriyah. The two plans are to distribute 5000-6000 residential lands to citizens before Eid al-Fitr, and the second is the construction of 1,000 low-cost housing units funded by the Ministry of Oil for low-income families. We these two plans will contribute to reducing the real estate prices in the governorate."

The legal expert, Jamal Al-Assadi, said that the "socialist mentality" of Iraq is an effective contributor to the rise in real estate prices, for it did not create newly populated areas, as only 10% of the Iraqi territory is inhabited by population. In comparison, the remaining 90% is still pristine with no population.

He continued, "The second thing that contributes to the rise of the real estate prices is the taxes and fees imposed on property sales."

"The government and the judiciary cannot prevent any property owner from reducing prices in the process of market speculation and raising their prices”, Al-Assadi concluded.