Ministry of Housing Raises Engineers’ Fees by 45 Percent

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.

Since the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024, the transitional administration has restricted the registration of property transactions in official land registries in various ways, resulting in stagnation in the formal real-estate market, a decline in the number of building permits issued by administrative units, and a drop in the number of supervision contracts issued by the Engineers’ Syndicate.

In contrast, this stagnation in the formal market has not affected the unlicensed real-estate market or construction in unregulated areas where construction is prohibited, in other words, in informal settlements.

Engineers working in private engineering offices rely on the architectural plans attached to building permits and on building supervision contracts for their income. This situation has led to the closure of many engineering offices. About 7,000 out of a total of 29,000 engineering offices across Syria are currently inactive, Rasine Ismat, Secretary of the Engineers’ Syndicate explained

Omar, an architect and owner of an engineering office on Al-Thawra Street in Damascus, confirmed that most engineers working in private offices earn no more than SYP 1.5 million a month, forcing many of them to travel abroad in search of work.

The owner of an engineering office in the Jisr Al-Abyad area of Damascus said that, despite the increase in engineers’ fees by around 45 percent, earnings remain modest and cannot be compared with those in neighbouring countries.

While the ministerial decision was issued in response to the syndicate’s proposal to raise the fees of engineers working in private offices to compensate for the reduction in building permits, a similar adjustment is expected to be proposed for supervision-study fees during the syndicate’s next central-council meeting.

A correspondent for The Syria Report found that the proposal included dividing engineers’ fees into tiers. The ministry ultimately endorsed these same fee rates in Decision No. 4121, approving the syndicate’s proposal without modification:

• First tier: homes with an area between 50 and 85 square metres — fees increased to SYP 300,000 per square metre, up from SYP 200,000.
• Second tier: homes with an area between 85 and 100 square metres — fees increased to SYP 500,000, up from SYP 350,000.
• Third tier: homes with an area exceeding 100 square metres — fees increased to SYP 700,000, up from SYP 500,000.
• Fourth tier: non-residential facilities such as hospitals and hotels — fees increased to SYP 1 million per square metre, up from SYP 700,000.

Mr Ismat, the syndicate secretary, told The Syria Report that the decision to raise the rates was not circulated to the syndicate’s governorate-level branches until it had first been presented to the council for discussion of the implementation mechanisms.

He explained that increasing engineers’ fees would not have much effect on property prices, which are influenced by many factors, most importantly the prices of building materials.

He added that current efforts focus on coordinating with the governorate to introduce a mandatory condition for obtaining a building permit that requires the permit holder to contract a recognised engineering office to supervise construction.

This requirement, an old demand renewed after the February 6, 2023 earthquake, has still not been enforced, as permit holders can continue to hire construction contractors or building developers directly to carry out the work.