Darayya Residents Return, But Rubble and Property Issues Persist

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.

Darayya witnessed a large peaceful movement in 2011 before opposition factions took control of it in 2012. The city was later subjected to heavy shelling and a severe siege that ended in 2016 with the forced displacement of its residents and the destruction of many areas. In 2018, the Rural Damascus governorate divided Darayya into three sectors based on the level of destruction. Sector A, with limited destruction and extending along the Damascus–Darayya road to the north, allowed only the inhabitants of its homes to obtain renovation permits after submitting documents proving ownership. They needed to obtain prior security approval from the Fourth Division, which controlled the area at the time. An estimated 25,000 people returned to Sector A between 2019 and 2024.

Meanwhile, Sector B, which surrounds Al-Thawra Street and witnessed medium destruction, was assigned a timetable for residents’ return that would begin once rubble removal operations were completed.

Sector C, which includes the Associations District and was completely destroyed, was deemed in need of full reconstruction.

Owners of properties in Sectors B and C were not allowed to return until the fall of the regime in December 2024. According to local estimates, as many as 200,000 residents returned to Darayya after the fall of the Assad regime.

The Khalij area, which is not classified within Sector C, is the part of Darayya that was entirely demolished. Before 2011, it was home to around 20,000 residents and consisted of one zoned section and another informal section built on agricultural land where construction was prohibited. The demolition carried out by regime forces in 2012 in the Khalij area took place without any legal basis, due to the proximity of residential construction to the Mazzeh military airport and the Air Force Intelligence building.

At the beginning of November, the Darayya municipality introduced a draft zoning plan for rebuilding the Khalij area, which envisions transforming it into modern residential towers distributed to owners under a shareholding system, according to mayor Mohammad Jaanina. The municipality requested that residents who had lived in unlicensed homes in the informal part of the area submit documents proving ownership of the land on which their homes were built. Municipal estimates indicate that 30 percent of residents from the informal section have not returned to the area and therefore have not been able to prove their ownership.

The draft plan converts the land in the Khalij area into equity shares whose value corresponds to market prices, and once the area is rebuilt, apartments in the new towers are distributed to rights holders according to these shares. Mr Jaanina said that a committee of seven members had been formed within the municipality to examine property claims in the Khalij area.

In parallel, in October, the Darayya municipality proposed a separate draft plan to expand the city by 10 percent and submitted it to the Rural Damascus governorate for review. Deputy Darayya mayor Ismail Naasa told The Syria Report that this plan is not related to rebuilding damaged neighbourhoods but is limited to urban expansion.

Mr Naasa noted the presence of informal neighbourhoods built on agricultural land within Darayya itself, where homes are unlicensed and not recorded in the Land Registry. He added that the municipality issues renovation approvals only to those able to prove ownership, and that in these informal areas proof of ownership may consist of water or electricity bills in the name of the homeowner or a sales contract notarised by a public notary. Mr Naasa explained that the municipality’s technical committee inspects buildings to determine whether they are suitable for renovation or must be demolished and rebuilt.

Separately, the Civil Defence announced earlier this month, that  in cooperation with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, it had begun removing around 40,000 cubic metres of rubble from the city. However, this quantity remains very limited compared with the volume of rubble in Darayya, which exceeds 500,000 cubic metres. The director of Civil Defence, Munir Mustafa, told The Syria Report that removing 40,000 cubic metres requires around 10 months. Mr Mustafa said that a site had been designated in the Al-Sabboura area outside Darayya for collecting the removed rubble prior to recycling. Work is underway to purchase equipment dedicated to rubble recycling, with a plan in place for a private company to take over the recycling process and benefit from the resulting materials, he added.

Darayya, like neighbouring areas, is still suffering without restoration of basic services and infrastructure, according to Salim Asad, a member of the Council of Elders. The council is a semi-official body approved by the Ministry of Local Administration, consisting of five local Darayya notables. It submits proposals to official bodies and negotiates with NGOs to provide aid to the city. Mr Asad said the destruction is extensive and that the Darayya community cannot alone bear the costs of reconstruction projects, despite local efforts covering a large portion of current water and electricity services. He added that there need to be more projects focused on genuine reconstruction, without what he says are today’s empty promises. He expressed optimism that the start of rubble removal could constitute a first step towards tangible work in rebuilding.