News

On December 21, 2025, the Minister of Public Works and Housing issued Decision No. 6167, establishing a committee to review cases where members of housing cooperatives were dismissed, meaning their housing allocations or subscriptions were cancelled, due to their failure to meet their financial obligations, or because it was impossible to contact them as a result of displacement, travel, detention, or security-related pursuit. The committee will examine and document the reasons for dismissal.

The Hama Endowments Directorate issued Circular No. 913 on December 23, 2025, addressed to investors and tenants of waqf properties used as restaurants and cafés, stipulating the cancellation of all licences previously granted allowing the provision or sale of any beverages or materials that contravene Islamic objectives, under penalty of immediate contract termination. The circular also noted that the directorate will monitor investors’ compliance through specialised committees tasked with inspections and field visits to ensure proper implementation.

Efforts to address the reconstruction and improve service provision in the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo continue to run up against the sheer volume of rubble accumulated over years of war, with no comprehensive official programmes or studies to deal with the issue. With the capacity of municipal and local authorities remaining limited, interventions are confined to scattered locations. Piecemeal initiatives have also emerged from international and local actors to remove and recycle rubble within narrow timeframes and geographical frameworks.

With the return of residents to Douma, in the Damascus countryside, the issue of tunnels has re-emerged as one of the matters directly linked to repair works, rubble removal, and building safety. The city, which saw the construction of an extensive tunnel network during the years of siege, is still dealing today with this legacy as a technical issue deemed non-urgent, at a time when residents’ return to damaged homes is accelerating, and the need for repairs is growing. While the municipality and the Engineers’ Syndicate assert that the tunnels do not pose a structural risk, there is still no clear data regarding their scale and spread.

On December 4, the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic issued Decision No. 14, stipulating the formation of a special committee to address the Decree No. 66 of 2012 file. The committee is tasked with submitting proposals and recommendations to the General Secretariat. The decision to form the committee comes at a sensitive moment, as lingering questions over Decree No. 66 intersect with a broader debate over how to handle during today’s transitional phase urban policies that were approved in recent years.

Since the city of Raqqa fell out of the control of the Assad regime in 2013, real estate documentation has proceeded along two parallel tracks. The first track was linked to the succession of multiple de facto authorities over the Directorate of Land Registry, and the accompanying suspension of its work, transfer of its documents, and the creation of alternative registers. The second track was represented by the practices adopted by rights holders themselves to preserve their property rights, in the absence of a stable and recognised registration authority.

On November 22, the Lattakia governorate Information Branch sent a letter to the Internal Security Branch to prevent and stop any transaction undertaken by members of families affiliated with the Assad regime. The letter (No. 1040) -  listed the following families: Al-Assad, Marai, Shalish, Jaqmoq, Jaber, Kanaan, Makhlouf, Deeb, Maarouf and Khayr Bek. 

Though some residents have returned to the Rural Damascus city of Darayya since Assad’s ouster last year, there are still major obstacles to verifying property rights within the damaged neighbourhoods and informal settlements, as well as removing rubble and providing public services. In this context, the municipality is proposing two new plans to rezone the Khalij district and expand the city, though these steps remain limited amid broader challenges to reconstruction.

Residents of Zamalka, in Rural Damascus, are struggling to repair homes damaged during the war, amid the absence of comprehensive planning schemes from both the governorate and the municipality, and the high costs of shouldering the repair work themselves.  Local estimates indicate that the current population does not exceed around 80,000 people.

Homs city has seen rising tensions in recent days following a double murder on November 23 in the town of Zaidal, southeast of Homs city near the Homs–Damascus highway. News of the incident spread widely and was followed by a wave of incitement and accusations against Alawite residents of the city, blaming them for the crime. Amid this charged atmosphere, neighbourhoods with an Alawite presence in the city (particularly Al-Muhajireen and Al-Armen) turned into scenes of extensive attacks that same day, affecting dozens of homes and forcing their residents to flee.

The Al-Nasr Boulevard project, the first major urban project to be launched since the fall of the Assad regime, was announced on August 12, during an official conference in Homs attended by the Governor of Homs, Abdulrahman al-Aama, and the Chairman of the Board of the Omran Company for Development and Real Estate Investment, Rifai Al-Hamada. The governorate presented the project as part of a series of initiatives to reconstruct damaged areas of the city.

The Al-Sumariya area has witnessed rising tension in recent weeks following the start of excavation works near homes to install what appears to be a metal security fence. This comes amid the presence of an armed group from Moadamiyet Al-Sham -  loyal to the Transitional Goverment - that has imposed itself as a de facto authority and now oversees the neighbourhood’s internal affairs.

Government-affiliated work crews are accelerating restoration work on vacant homes across large areas of the northern and western countryside of Suweida, after those homes were damaged during a violent incursion by forces loyal to the transitional government in mid-July. According to forcibly displaced individuals, legal experts and local employees there has been a lack of consent from the property owners, and ambiguity over sources of funding.

The Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate has submitted its detailed programme for managing the reconstruction process to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, presenting it as the syndicate’s official vision for reconstruction. The programme proposes establishing a central authority linked to the Presidency of the Republic, implementing a comprehensive damage survey, and developing zoning plans.

The General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, or Land Registry, is enacting measures to restore damaged property records in several areas, and exploring new mechanisms to simplify obtaining financial clearance (Al-Dhimma Al-Maliyya) in coordination with the Ministry of Finance. The Directorate’s head, AbdulKarim Idriss, told The Syria Report, that the restoration work is following established legal procedures, while proposals are being discussed to address the growing pressure on property-sale transactions and the registration of real-estate rights.

The Damascus Governorate is currently reviewing its urban vision for the Qaboun neighbourhood, albeit without funding or reconstruction offers. The zoning plans proposed for this Damascene neighborhood - which suffered near-total destruction during the conflict - remain unresolved, with no move toward an executive phase. The complex property-rights situation, limited return of residents, weak services, the lack of a comprehensive engineering survey and the lack of housing solutions further complicate any practical path forward.

The Ministry of Economy and Industry has granted an extended deadline for entering shops into the Commercial Register until the end of 2026, a step aimed at reorganising the commercial market and clarifying the legal status of shops and the rights of those involved. The decision carries particular importance due to the large number of commercial premises still operating under the old furough (permanent lease contracts) system, which creates intertwined rights and obligations between owners and tenants.

In late October, the Aleppo City Council launched the first phase of a real estate development project in the Al-Haydariyeh district (the largest informal settlement in eastern Aleppo), presenting it as the opening step in the city’s reconstruction plans. However, the sudden start of demolition works provoked protests and concerns among residents, who demanded clear guarantees for their rights amid the absence of official information about compensation mechanisms or lists of beneficiaries.

Residents of the Damascus neighbourhood of Al-Asali are waiting for clarification regarding their property rights after the Damascus Governorate suspended work on the Basilia City project, which includes the district, until the next People’s Assembly decides its fate. The neighbourhood is completely destroyed and uninhabited, despite entry being permitted. Property owners remain unable to carry out any reconstruction or building while awaiting a final decision on the area’s zoning status.

The transitional government’s Ministry of Religious Endowments (also known as waqf) is reorganising management of its properties across the country by reviewing old lease contracts and updating appraisal values on 34,000 wafq properties. The ministry has also begun reclaiming several properties that had been held by influential figures during Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, among them the Yalbugha Complex in Damascus, which was in the hands of Wassim Qattan, and the Officers’ Club and a hotel in Aleppo.