Baghdad needs new homes

The Iraqi capital of Baghdad is witnessing significant capital growth, amid security improvements and a stringent shortage in housing supply...

"The price per square metre in the Zayuneh district has risen from £338 in 2005 to more than £676 today," says Abu Abbas, Owner of Baghdad-based Zayuneh Estate Agency, located on the east bank of the Tigris.

Abbas says that vendors have "become even greedier" since the ratification of the security agreement with the United States, which will see the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Property price rises in the city are being fuelled by a supply-demand imbalance, due to the return of a number of refugees.

Baghdad currently has around one million residential units for its seven million inhabitants.

Bayan Dazai, the Housing and Construction Minister, estimates that Iraq will need 2.5 million new homes by 2015.

"We must build 200,000 homes a year and that can only be done by private investors," the Minister said.

Source: www.homesoverseas.co.uk/news