|
Kurdistan: Dream Homes Turn Off Erbil
Residents
29.9.2006
By Fazl Najeeb in Erbil (ICR No. 196, 29-Sep-06)
|
|
|
|
With many locals struggling to pay their rents,
plans for a luxury development have not gone down
well.
Erbil, Kurdistan Region (Iraq), -- Ameen
Muhammad, 72, spent 33 years of his life working for
the ministry of housing. Now he is retired, and his
biggest problem is - housing.
Up ‘till 1990s, he owned a house, which he inherited
from his father, but was forced to sell it to save
his family from going hungry, a fate he shared with
many Iraqi families during the economic sanctions
imposed after the invasion of Kuwait.
He lives in a rented house in a middle-class
neighbourhood, for which he pays 300 dollars per
month - around three times his monthly pension. He
can’t find anywhere cheaper because rents have
soared in the Kurdish capital over the past couple
years. Without the support of his son, who runs a
small shop, Muhammad could not get by.
The old man often spends his days with his friends
at one of the teahouses in the centre of Erbil. They
sip their sweet tea and talk about how life is
changing in their hometown.
The most obvious signs of change are the countless
cranes towering over the place. A building boom has
seen the construction of new bridges, shopping malls
and apartment blocks.
For Mohammad and his friends, however, much of the
new housing is not an option, especially that on
offer in the biggest residential project, Dream
City, a multi-million dollar development, consisting
of 1200 luxury homes, ranging from 170,000 to one
million US dollars.
By way of comparison, houses in poor neighbourhoods
of Erbil cost around 75,000 dollars and four times
more in wealthier suburbs.
“Even if I spend the remaining years of my life
working every minute, I won't be able to own even
the smallest villa in [Dream City]," said Mohammad.
Located in the west of Erbil close to the
international airport, the luxury housing project
got under way in 2005 and is expected to be finished
in five years’ time.
Advertisements featured in newspapers run by the
governing KDP party praise the new 300-million-
dollar development as the “most beautiful and
fanciest” in Iraq.
Sa'd Ihsan, the head of PR for the Iraqi
Construction Company, ICC, which is implementing the
project, says the Kurdish government gave the
go-ahead after it was proposed as an investment for
the area.
But people here take a dim view of the development.
Many stopped discussing it after learning how much
apartments were going to cost, as they are well
beyond the means of most workers, who earn an
average of 100 dollars a month, which is barely
enough to pay for basic necessities.
Hushyar Bakir, 40, is married and earns a living as
a taxi driver. He has six brothers and a sister,
with whose family he shares his father’s house.
Bakir says that even if he and his siblings were “to
throw all our money together, we could not afford a
house in Dream City”.
Abdulkareem Qadi, a university graduate, wonders how
the government can give approval for a
luxury-housing scheme when it “cannot provide the
city with water and electricity?"
But the Middle East Construction Company, ICC’s
mother company, defends the high prices for
property, saying that it started selling units as
soon as the project was made public and the majority
of customers have been businessmen and doctors.
"People from all over Iraq can buy villas," said a
media adviser for the company, who declined to be
named because of security concerns. “Although prices
for our villas are too high for [low-level]
government employees.”
Financial experts say that while the majority of
Iraqis continue to struggle, many of those involved
in business are doing well and can afford Dream City
prices.
Adham Ahmed, head of the Kurdistan Central Bank,
said, “Profits of business people have broken the
record, and their capital grows every year. At the
same time, the income of ordinary people does not
change."
For those who cannot afford a Dream City home, the
government promises to offer more affordable
alternatives. "The regional government has a plan to
make all Erbil a dream city," said Ferhad Mohammad,
a local authority spokesman.
He said the government aims to build 5,000 low-cost
housing units. The homes will sell for 30,000
dollars and people on very low incomes should be
able to afford them, as they will be allowed to pay
in installments over an extended period, he
continued.
For Murad Saeed, 56, a doctor, money is not a
problem. When colleagues of his bought property in
Dream City, he decided to join them. He says if the
development can provide, water, electricity and
security then it will deserve its name.
Fazl Najeeb is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Kurdistan Region (Iraq).
iwpr net
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 