News

The Parliament approved a bill on November 30 granting the Presidency of the Council of Ministers the authority to manage movable and immovable assets confiscated under final judicial rulings. Now the bill will be sent to the President for ratification, issuance, and subsequent publication in the Official Gazette.

The Damascus governorate has signed a contract with a company to study the master plan, also called general zoning plan, for Damascus and its surroundings, covering an area of 59,000 hectares.

As real estate prices rise, the pressure of housing needs for displaced people in AANES areas increases, and the migration of locals abroad continues, residents seek to document their property ownership by all available means.

The Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction of the Ministry of Local Administration and Services under the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in Idlib announced earlier this month a competition to plan and design two youth housing projects.

People whose homes were damaged nine months ago in the devastating February 6 earthquake are still struggling to secure other housing amidst delays in implementing government housing projects.

Former Lattakia Governor Ibrahim Khader Al-Salem was arrested under a warrant issued on October 18, by the Ministry of Justice’s Lattakia Court and placed in the governorate’s Al-Basseh prison.

The Syrian Arab Code Committee in the Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate issued its recommendations in recent days regarding the development of a code for constructing earthquake-resistant concrete buildings.

Displaced individuals are hesitant to return to Tadhamon due to the strictness in granting security approval for those wishing to return, and the bribes extorted by the Military Security intelligence service and the National Defence Forces militia. No more than 1,500 people have returned to Al-Tadhamon to date.

The judiciary’s acquittal of several government employees accused of involvement in the illicit construction that led to the collapse of a building in the Fardous District killing 14 people has led to a local outcry.

On November 5, a semi-official newspaper published a post stating that a legal solution to halt the demolition of the BigFive Mall, which was built on public property without a licence, in Damascus was reached.

The Syrian Salvation Government, affiliated with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is working to recover public properties (agricultural lands or buildings) that have been taken over by individuals within its areas of control in northwest Syria.

In early October, the Council of Ministers approved a legislative bill to establish a public authority with legal status and financial and administrative independence to protect, manage and optimally invest state properties to generate higher financial returns.

The prices of construction materials continue to rise in both the official and black markets in areas controlled by the Damascus government, leading to a steady increase in property market prices.

After a 13-year hiatus, a private company resumed construction work in October 2023 on a hotel project located in the Kafr Soussa, despite existing court rulings in favor of the local residents against the construction company for infringing on their easement rights.

In recent days, the Ministry of State for the Development of the Southern Region has held workshops in the governorates affected by the February 6, 2023 earthquake, with representatives from various institutions, government agencies and chambers of commerce.

The General Commission for the Administration and Development of Al-Ghab in cooperation with FAO has completed the rehabilitation works of a section of an irrigation canal that waters agricultural lands, some of which are owned by individuals forcibly displaced.

More than 150 files have been referred to the “competent authorities” after the discovery of serious instances of corruption by the Aleppo City Council, the Director of Internal Oversight for the Aleppo governorate, Abeer Maktoubi, told semi-official newspaper Al-Watan on September 18. 

On October 2, the governor of Idlib, Thaer Salhab, told the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper that 70,0000 people now live in government-controlled parts of Idlib governorate.

The repercussions of the collapse last month of several balconies on a building in Damascus’ central Al-Malki district appear to still be unfolding as the matter shifts from merely an issue of unlicensed construction to a security concern.

After a campaign by the National Union of Syrian Students and in line with government digitisation trends, the Ministry of Higher Education and the University of Damascus announced on September 20 that they had launched a mobile application named “Sakn.”