Profile: The New Syrian Prime Minister as a Researcher and Real Estate Developer

Before his recent appointment as Prime Minister in September, the name of Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali had long been associated with his expertise as a real estate and economy specialist. Over the years, Mr Jalali put forward numerous proposals to address real estate issues and criticised the government’s handling of various matters, such as social housing, the real estate market, and rental regulations.

Politician and Businessman

Mr Jalali was born in Damascus in 1969 to a family displaced from the Golan Heights. He earned a PhD in Engineering Economics from Ain Shams University in Cairo in 2000, and a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Damascus in 1992. Since September 2023, Mr Jalali has served as President of the Syrian Private University, where Ihab Makhlouf, the cousin of President Bashar Al-Assad, is the main shareholder. He was also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the consulting firm Arab Quality Makers based in Damascus, from 2019 until his appointment as Prime Minister.

Mr Jalali held the position of Minister of Communications and Technology from 2014 to 2016, which led to his inclusion on the European Union’s sanctions list. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Minister from 2008 to 2014.

Notably, in his new government formation, he selected Hamza Ali as Minister of Public Works and Housing, a key ministry involved in construction and overseeing social and cooperative housing. Mr Ali, who hails from Homs, is the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering for Scientific Affairs at Al-Baath University in Homs and had not previously held any government position.

Mr Jalali is also a businessman. In 2018, he co-founded Damascene Deyar LLC, a company specialising in engineering services, consultancy, auditing, supervision, and providing expertise and advice to various public, private, and joint sector companies. The company operates across different engineering fields and conducts tests, engineering experiments, and economic feasibility studies, according to the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Protection’s Decision No. 2395 of 2018, which approved the company’s bylaws. The company’s capital was set at SYP 5 million (around USD 7,700 at the exchange rate of the time), with Mr Jalali holding a 15 percent share, the same as his partner AbdulSalam AbdulKarim Zeydan, while the remaining 70 percent was owned by the third partner, Ahmad Mahmoud Kawkash. The company’s capital does not reflect its financial solvency but represents the minimum requirement to complete the company’s licensing process. The company’s Facebook page does not mention any investments, with the only reference being to engineering training courses it has held.

In 2018, Damac Properties, a UAE-based luxury property developer company, held a meeting with Damascene Deyar, attended by Mr Jalali, alongside Telsa Group, amid discussions on potential reconstruction projects.  However, the meeting apparently did not result in any actual investments or the launch of any projects on the ground. Damac Properties, chaired by Emirati Hussain Sajwani and headquartered in Dubai, has real estate projects across the GCC, the Levant, and the Middle East. Telsa is a group of Syrian companies operating in telecommunications, real estate, and contracting, chaired by Maher BurhanEddine Al-Imam.

Real Estate Expert

In an article published by the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper on September 15, the new Prime Minister is described as someone focused on urban planning, aiming to eliminate disparities between different areas and establish long-term financing projects. Mr Jalali is also presented as being keen for the General Housing Establishment to resume offering similar housing schemes to those of the past, where citizens could purchase a home by paying 10 percent upfront and the remainder in instalments. In the article, he argues that the public sector must participate in real estate development to stabilise the property market and meet housing needs at well-calculated costs and prices, with reasonable profit margins, and to prevent excessive speculation and market manipulation by traders and contractors. Mr Jalali also says that the state’s developmental role is crucial and that the government must intervene to impose regulations on the real estate market, such as limiting ownership of multiple properties and potentially guiding the flow of capital.

Mr Jalali has frequently spoken to official media about pressing real estate issues, particularly the property sales market and property prices. His comments, however, are sometimes contradictory. For instance, on multiple occasions, he has stated that the Syrian property market is experiencing irrational and unjustified price increases, especially in the capital, Damascus, where prices have become comparable to those in Western capitals like Rome and Paris, as he mentioned in an interview with Al-Watan in early 2022.

He reportedly believes that illogical prices in the property market,particularly for commissions, legal fees, engineering studies, and supervision, contribute to raising property prices in the local market by around 30 percent above what they should be. He also argues that widespread market speculation, driven by the desire for high profits amid a lack of investment opportunities in most other sectors, creates artificial demand for property, further inflating prices. According to Mr Jalali, another factor that hampers real estate activity is that many building contractors, due to inflation and fluctuating exchange rates, are unable to set final prices for their products. This uncertainty prompts them to raise housing prices as a precaution, while buyers struggle with liquidity issues, especially as daily withdrawal limits from banks have been reduced.

However, in other statements, Mr Jalali has claimed that property prices in Syria are fair and reasonable, even lower in dollar terms than they were before 2011, as he told Al-Watan in May 2024. He pointed out that property prices increased by about 300 times in Syrian pounds between 2011 and 2024, which is less than the average increase in prices for other goods, which rose by around 1,000 times. Mr Jalali also added that property prices are linked to rising construction material costs, building expenses, and energy costs, to the extent that property prices are now lower than their construction costs.

In the same article, he said that this so-called “price fairness” in property values does not mean that citizens are able to own a private home, even in informal settlements, due to the vast gap between prices and wages. He explained that while owning a home was a dream before 2011, today it has become an impossibility. On the other hand, he offered no solution to the housing crisis in Syria, acknowledging that it is impossible for the state to control prices because it cannot build enough housing to influence the market. This lack of capacity prevents the state from regulating prices, as forced price controls would only lead to an active black market, as he mentioned in an interview with Al-Watan in July 2019.

However, in March 2021, the Real Estate Sales Law, Law No. 15 of 2021, which sets property sales tax based on the prevailing market value of real estate was passed. This was seen as an official intervention in determining property prices. Mr Jalali had promoted the Real Estate Sales Law before it was issued, insisting that it would not impact property prices but was instead aimed at reducing tax evasion. In 2022, he implicitly criticised the law by acknowledging that it had partially contributed to the stagnation of the real estate market. Nevertheless, he maintained that the market’s stagnation and inflation were more closely linked to the restrictions on liquidity movement in banks during property transactions.

Despite his frequent media appearances, Mr Jalali avoided discussing the issue of informal settlements, which account for around 30-40 percent of housing in Syria. He often limited his remarks to general descriptions of the phenomenon, considering it a natural occurrence in developing countries. He suggested that the solution lies in providing affordable housing through urban planning and mortgage financing. He has repeatedly called for developers to be given the opportunity to amend and propose urban planning designs in line with their marketing strategies.

Mr Jalali’s proposals on real estate did not address the impact of war and destruction on the housing and construction sectors, nor did they consider the effect of government policies that hinder the return of displaced people to their areas, the decisions to prevent the renovation of damaged homes, or the security approvals required for property transactions.