Financial Clearance Obstructs the Property Registration Process in Damascus

Since the Ministry of Finance in the Transitional Government resumed issuing financial clearance certificates in June, the measure has turned into a daily ordeal for thousands of citizens in Damascus. Instead of resolving the backlog of unregistered property sales since the fall of the Assad regime, it has led to a suffocating administrative crisis, delays in processing transactions, and has opened the door to brokerage and exploitation of applicants.

On June 21, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 87, reinstating the granting of financial clearance certificates after a suspension of more than six months. This certificate is a basic requirement for completing property transfer transactions and documenting ownership in the Land Registry. The faragha is the process of directly transferring ownership of a property in the Land Registry and registering it under another person’s name, whether the property is built or unbuilt, residential or commercial. This process applies exclusively to subdivided properties in zoned areas. The transfer may take the form of direct cession, sale, or donation.

The Ministry of Finance explained at the time of issuing Circular No. 87 that the resumption of certificates was coordinated with the ministries of interior, justice, local administration, and land registries, after drawing up lists of major figures implicated in violations linked to the previous regime who were barred from selling or transferring their property.

Thousands of applicants flocked to the Finance Directorate in Damascus to submit requests for financial clearance certificates in the weeks following the circular’s issuance, our correspondent noted. Sources within the directorate estimated that more than 5,000 requests had been submitted since the end of June, but the directorate had only been able to issue a few dozen certificates so far. According to the directorate, this slowness is due to a severe staff shortage, with each employee forced to review hundreds of requests daily, making the issuance of a single certificate take several days. The directorate was unable to keep up with the pressure, which limited approvals.

Meanwhile, property sales transactions conducted since December 2024 accumulated through informal or customary contracts, after the Transitional Administration had suspended the documentation of sales in land registries and courts. The Cadastral Affairs Directorate had already halted the registration of sales on January 21, and on March 2 the Ministry of Finance sent an official letter to the Ministry of Justice instructing courts not to forward judicial rulings related to the registration of property sale confirmations to the Land Registry.

Around 50,000 property sales have taken place in Damascus since the fall of the Assad regime and have not yet been documented, sources at the Finance Directorate estimated. This has caused unprecedented delays and heavy pressure on employees responsible for reviewing applications.

One applicant at the Finance Directorate told The Syria Report that he submitted a request for clearance weeks earlier, but was told to come back in two days,” with no result. Another applicant, who had purchased a property but could not yet transfer ownership because neither he nor the seller had obtained a clearance, explained that his transaction stalled for more than two weeks despite repeated visits.

A property owner wishing to transfer ownership to his wife pointed out that some middlemen claimed they could obtain a clearance certificate within a single day for USD 200. Multiple applicants mentioned middlemen, whom they hired to avoid wasting time and effort. Others, however, said that middlemen resorted to extortion, first claiming they could complete transactions quickly for a reasonable fee, before raising the price repeatedly. These testimonies suggest that practices of corruption long associated with government institutions under the Assad regime may still be present.

While there is severe congestion in the Damascus Finance Directorate, the Land Registry in Damascus appeared almost empty of applicants. This is because completing any ownership transfer in the land registries first requires a financial clearance certificate. Sources in the Land Registry Directorate stressed that the problem does not lie in their offices, but in the delays at the Finance Directorate in issuing the certificates, adding that the land registry offices were ready to register ownerships once the transactions were completed.

These sources also pointed out that an annually updated backup copy of ownership documents is stored in the Central Bank of Syria, ensuring rights are not lost. They claimed that the continuing delays were unjustified, especially given the urgent need to process sales transactions, warning that the accumulation of cases would cause great harm to citizens and undermine confidence in the new administrative procedures.

The financial clearance crisis in Damascus shows that the resumption of this procedure was undertaken without sufficient administrative preparation to handle the volume of accumulated requests. The lack of adequate staff and weak procedural infrastructure quickly created bottlenecks that gave space for brokerage and middlemen. Continuing this situation risks prolonging the suspension of registering transactions, undermining citizens’ trust in the new administrative process at a time when regulating property sales should constitute a key step towards consolidating stability and guaranteeing rights.