Housing in Erbil “unaffordable” as foreign companies and Ara

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Housing in Erbil “unaffordable” as foreign companies and Arab families flow into the city

Erbil, Nov. 8 (AKnews) – Housing in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region, is on a steady rise as more foreign companies and Arab families flow into the region.

The prices vary from house to house depending on the size, location, furnishing and other services starting from US$300 to US$2,400 per month. The increasing prices have raised concerns among the locals whose average monthly salary is US$600.

Omar Sulaiman, who has four children, has been a tenant all his life. He receives 400,000 Iraqi Dinars (about US$340) and spends 300,00 Dinar of it on housing in one of Erbil’s old neighborhoods. To cover up his family’s costs of living, he works as a taxi driver while he is off work.
His concern is not that he has failed to buy a house like the majority of the people, but tht the rental is steadily on the rise while his income remains the same. “My landlord has told me that I will have to evacuate the house if I don’t increase the rental.” Sulaiman said. “I am now forced to look for an alternative, cheap accommodation”

Citizens blame the increase in housing prices on the coming of hundreds of foreign companies to Kurdistan Region for business which need housing for their staff.

One house located on Erbil’s 40 Meter Street had a sign on it which read “house to let; only companies and offices”. It is a three bedroom, one living room, kitchen and bathroom, but the owner of the house said he wanted to let it for US$1,300 per month – three times more than its ordinary price if offices and companies rejected to settle in private house for an office.

Some of the companies use the private houses as offices or stores becuase they can get those houses for lower prices that offices or stores (though these prices are much higher than normal for the houses).

According to statistics, there are over 30,000 tenant families in Erbil city. The government has made efforts to address the issue o housing by providing free land to investment companies to construct houses and sell them to the people at affordable prices or in installments.

But these efforts have failed to solve the problem as many businessmen and wealth families (who have the ready money) have taken advantage of this opportunity to buy dozens of these houses and sell them later for good profits.

Some people have complained about lack of a law to control housing prices. But Jamal Omar, a member of the Kurdish parliament believes such a law would be useless “becuase the landlords will not follow it and alternatively will let their houses outside the rule of the law”

Omar said the increase in housing prices was due to an increase in demands. “some 5 years ago, a house in Duhok was US$800 per month while in Erbil it was only U$200. Now this has reversed. Erbil is seen as the capital of Kurdistan and is an important trade center”

A member of the Kurdish Parliament, Shler Mohammed said the parliament planned to allocate 49 billion Iraqi Dinars in the 2012 budget for addressing the housing problem. The money would be spent on residential projects sold to people in affordable installments.

But she did not have any detail on how they would identify the families who were in dire need of housing from the wealthy families or businessmen who have the money to buy many of these houses and re-sell them on big profits.

Real estate agents say that despite the high prices, it was almost impossible to find a house for rent. They said another reason behind the rising prices was the flow of a hundreds of Arab families from southern and central Iraq who are wealthy enough to buy houses for high prices or pay relatively high rental prices.

“If an Arab family takes a rental house for US$700 and spends US$300 per month, this is much better for them becuase they have fled bombings,kidnappings and the bad security situation in their home cities. At least they can sleep peacefully in Erbil” says a real estate agent who declined to be named.

“… therefore, the landlord would rather let their houses to the Arab families than the Kurdish families who can not pay more than US$300″ he said.

Kamaran Ahmed, Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Housing and Reconstruction told AKnews that the 49 billion housing project will be implemented partially this year.

“In the first phase of the project, about 1,000 flats will built for needy families. These flats will be built on an area no less than 100 square meters.” he said, “But next year, more residential units will be built in the second phase, and instead of flats, houses will be built”

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