Rocketing house prices bad news for locals

ARBIL - As the price of housing collapses in the rest of the world, it is soaring in Baghdad.

"Property is the fastest way to make money here," says Mohammed al-Hadithi, who runs a real estate office in the wealthy Yarmouk district of west Baghdad. "Over the past two years there has been a big rise in the market because the security situation is calmer."

Until recently, anybody wanting to sell a house in Baghdad avoided putting up "for sale" signs because they were closely watched by gangs who would wait for the purchase to go through and then kidnap the seller or one of his children so they could demand the selling price as ransom.

House prices have risen by 50 per cent in many parts of central Baghdad during the past year, and rents have almost doubled. Hadithi says that this is explained primarily by the end of the war.

To read the full NZ Herald story click here

Posted: 19 Feb 2009

News articles