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In late July, the municipality of Amuda, controlled by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) in Hassakeh governorate, began evacuating shops in the Al-Hal Market, located in the city centre, returning the premises to their original owners in implementation of a 1997 court ruling. The decision prompted current shop occupants to demand compensation before eviction.
The municipality of Harasta, in Rural Damascus, is seeking approval for a new zoning plan that includes the Al-Ajami area, one of the city’s most war-damaged districts. The proposed plan, which has been submitted to the governorate and is awaiting approval, is meant to re-zone the destroyed area by constructing residential towers and infrastructure services.
The Directorate of Cadastral Affairs in Suweida is the official authority responsible for creating and maintaining property ownership data, based on the Land Registry Law No. 188 of 1926 and Decision No. 186 of 1926, which established the system of land demarcation and registration. Administratively, it reports to the General Directorate of Real Estate Affairs in Damascus, which supervises all provincial branches, giving the official documents issued by them uniform legal validity across the country.
Thousands of people in eastern Aleppo city live in buildings officially classified as being at risk of collapse. Despite repeated warnings, the lack of alternatives and the high cost of rent have forced many people to go on living in buildings that lack basic structural safety. With the economy continuing to deteriorate, and as officials offer no evacuation or housing support plans, many formerly displaced families have returned to buildings that were previously evacuated.
Property rental prices in Aleppo have risen in recent months driven both by increased demand fuelled by refugee returns and by real-estate agents acting as intermediaries in social media pages that are pushing these prices even higher. This hike in prices comes amidst an ongoing economic crisis marked by the depreciation of the Syrian pound, soaring prices, and declining real wages.
On September 23, the Minister of Public Works and Housing issued Decision No. 4121, approving a proposal by the Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate to raise engineers’ fees by around 45 percent in response to their declining income. The central council of the syndicate had met in mid-September, drafted the proposal, and submitted it to the ministry. The minister’s decision is expected to be implemented in November and is not anticipated to have a significant impact on property prices.
On September 14, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing issued Decision No. 3294 granting a new payment timeframe for applicants and allottees in social housing programmes whose subscriptions or allocations had been cancelled between 2011 and 2024 due to overdue payments. The decision serves as a financial and administrative settlement aimed at saving the contracts of thousands of subscribers and allottees at risk of losing their homes, provided that they commit to payment within a specified period. It comes as part of a policy to revive the housing sector and recover accumulated debts after years of stagnation.
On June 24, Syrian transitional president Ahmad Sharaa issued Decree No. 112, establishing the Syrian Development Fund (SYDF), headquartered in Damascus with branches in the governorates. The fund aims to contribute to reconstruction and support the overall development process by financing infrastructure projects and essential services such as electricity, water, health and education. The fund’s sources of financing include domestic and external grants, loans, international aid, and individual donations.
In September 2012, former President Bashar Al-Assad issued Legislative Decree No. 66 of 2012, which established two zoned real estate areas within the administrative boundaries of Damascus city. The first, known as Marota City, covers an area of 214 hectares and includes parts of the real estate areas of Mezzeh and Kafr Souseh; the second, known as Basilia City, covers 900 hectares and includes parts of the real estate areas of Mezzeh, Kafr Souseh, Qanawat Basateen, Darayya and Al-Qadam.
The discussion of “Greater Aleppo” – that is, the city as well as its surroundings – has re-emerged in recent days as part of efforts to rethink urban planning there after years of war, through improving services in its suburbs and linking them economically and socially to the city centre. This approach reflects a growing recognition that the future of Aleppo’s urban recovery will not be built within its walls alone, but through a broader regional perspective that includes the countryside and surroundings.
On September 21, the Director of the Cooperative Housing Directorate, Samer Al-Baytamouni, issued Decision No. 4023, which authorised the resumption of transfer (faragh) operations for cooperative housing. This type of transfer, usually made through sale, is carried out within the records of the housing associations rather than in the Land Registry.
Syria’s Civil Defence is expected to begin debris removal operations in parts of Rural Damascus at the start of October, starting from the city of Darayya, under an agreement signed in early September between the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre.
Like with other villages in rural Suweida governorate, fighters aligned with Syria’s transitional authorities attacked the village of Najran in July this year, displacing residents, and burning and destroying numerous homes. Though the transitional government’s forces withdrew from the village after only a few days, they left behind destruction that rendered Najran uninhabitable.
Since April, there has been a surge in property sales in Druze-majority areas of Rural Damascus. These came after escalating incitement against the community and subsequent armed attacks led by forces of the Ministries of Defence and Interior and tribal groups in April and May, which also affected parts of Suweida governorate. Real estate office owners and property owners in Sahnaya and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, two neighbouring towns in Rural Damascus, said that prices of Druze-owned properties in Rural Damascus have dropped by 20 to 30 percent compared to prevailing market prices in the same areas.
After weeks of debate and objections, the issue of old rental contracts subject to the compulsory extension system and the furugh system has reached a standstill, as the meetings of the government committee tasked with studying the matter have been suspended. The committee, formed to propose compromise solutions between property owners and tenants, faced widespread protests in a delicate economic and political climate, which hindered its work and raised questions about its future and the fate of one of Syria’s most sensitive property issues. There are around 100,000 properties under compulsory extension in Syria, half of them in Damascus and a large portion in Aleppo.
The Damascus Governorate is moving to include towns and cities from neighbouring Rural Damascus into its urban, service, and administrative scope, as part of the so-called “Greater Damascus” project. In this context, Darayya has emerged as one of the most prominent cities proposed for annexation and for re-zoning, after suffering massive destruction during the war. The governorate considers the reconstruction of Darayya conditional on the involvement of private investment companies, according to governorate sources.
The transitional government’s Ministry of Endowments has recently begun reappraising the value of leased endowment properties such as lands, commercial shops, and residences, according to prevailing market prices with the aim of increasing rental values. These measures cover properties subject to the compulsory extension and furough systems and are being implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, which issues a statement of the property’s market value to be later adopted in determining the rental fee.
More than four months have passed since the Clear Extortion Restitution Committee began its work in Aleppo city. In four months, the number of complaints submitted to the committee in Aleppo city had reached 624, according to statistics published by the local newspaper Al-Jamahir on July 8. The committee handled 411 of these complaints, and issued final decisions in 88 cases, in which the extortion was reversed and the property returned to its owner.
More than four months have passed since the Clear Extortion Restitution Committee began its work in Aleppo city. The committee was established by the Aleppo governor through Decision No. 9 on March 4, with the aim of restoring real estate properties that were seized during the Assad regime era. “Clear extortion” is the overt and evident seizure of a property without any legal document such as a title deed, lease contract, or any official document proving legitimate possession.
Widespread forced displacement was accompanied by indiscriminate shelling, home invasions, summary executions, and arbitrary arrests, alongside systematic looting of homes and shops, followed by setting them on fire or demolishing them. The sabotage also targeted hospitals and healthcare facilities, vital infrastructure such as water and electricity networks.
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