Qadam Residents Fear Losing Properties Amid Decree No. 66 Confusion

Residents of the Qadam neighbourhood in Damascus have concerns over property ownership and expropriation cases, after the governorate requested residents to submit ownership documents for properties falling within the scope of Decree No. 66 of 2012. This has sparked concerns about the possible imminent implementation of the decree.

Meanwhile, disputes have resurfaced in this neighbourhood over lands expropriated by the Ministry of Defence in the 1970s, with their original owners demanding their return. The neighbourhood’s mukhtar (local representative) confirmed that these disputes have been referred to the judiciary, while residents are calling for amendments to the decree and for old expropriation cases to be addressed in a way that preserves their rights.

Qadam is one of the border areas between the city of Damascus and its southern countryside. It is separated from nearby towns such as Sbeineh, Hujaira, and Sayyidat Zainab, and borders the Zahra and Midan neighbourhoods to the north, as well as Kafr Souseh, Darayya, and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. The neighbourhood includes a zoned area where most buildings are licensed multi-storey structures, and an informal zone. Most of its residents are originally Damascenes, in addition to newcomers from various other governorates. During the years of war, the neighbourhood suffered partial destruction, especially in the informal zone, which had been controlled by opposition armed factions. Its inhabitants were forcibly displaced to northern Syria in 2018. The informal area of Qadam was incorporated into the planning of the second zoning area created under Decree No. 66, known as Basilia City, which extends from the entrance of the neighbourhood to its centre and borders the informal Al-Asali neighbourhood. The first area is Marota City.

After the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024, some of the forcibly displaced residents returned, while others remained in the north due to the damage to their homes in the informal area and their inability to repair them. Those who returned began restoring their houses at their own expense, despite knowing that the area is subject to zoning regulations.

In early October, the Damascus Governorate requested residents of the informal zone, through the neighbourhood’s mukhtar, to submit documents proving ownership of their properties located within the scope of Decree No. 66 to the Directorate for Decree Implementation.

Around 100 people submitted their documents to the directorate to document their property rights and secure their recognition in official records. However, many others refrained, mainly because their homes are unlicensed and therefore not recorded in the Land Registry. Most residents of informal areas hold shared ownership shares of the land (on a common property basis), court rulings, or sale contracts notarised before a public notary. Many fear that submitting their documents would be seen as recognition of the decree, which they reject, believing it threatens their ownership and allows the state to confiscate their land. The Syria Report’s local correspondent confirmed that the governorate has not issued any eviction warnings or notices regarding these properties.

Separately, disputes have emerged within the neighbourhood in recent weeks over the ownership of certain lands and houses built on them in Harat Al-Mahatta (the Station Neighbourhood), after some residents claimed to be the original owners of the plots on which these houses were built. Harat Al-Mahatta was expropriated in the 1970s for the benefit of the Ministry of Defence, but officers from the Defence Brigades, which were then led by Rifaat Al-Assad, seized some of the plots and built private houses on them. During the war, some officers from the Republican Guard and the Fourth Division took over additional plots and built houses on them.

Ghaleb Al-Khouli, the mukhtar of Qadam, told The Syria Report that the issue of expropriation in the neighbourhood dates back to the 1970s, and that demands to reclaim the land have increased since the fall of the Assad regime. This is particularly true for properties that had been allocated to the Ministry of Defence, including those later seized by former regime officers.

Samir Badran, another resident of the neighbourhood, said that some owners of the expropriated lands have recently demanded the eviction of residents living in houses built on their land, relying on their old ownership documents. These demands have escalated into protests and assaults on residents, prompting intervention by the public security forces, who referred the disputing parties to the judiciary.