Real Estate Services in Daraa Paralysed After Fall of Assad

Since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, the majority of operations at the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs in Daraa have come to a halt, and all types of real estate transactions have been frozen. Contrary to residents’ expectations, these services have not resumed; instead, decisions restricting property sales have increased, whether issued by the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs or the Ministry of Finance. 

At the same time, the Daraa branch of the directorate suffers from a severe staff shortage, particularly in the surveying and documentation departments, preventing even the simplest technical transactions from being completed. These developments have negatively impacted property rights and increased the likelihood of disputes without coordination between judicial and administrative bodies, compounded by a growing number of contradictory circulars that lack a unified policy.

Following the Assad regime’s collapse, the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs across Syria issued two consecutive circulars. The first, in January, suspended all transactions on real estate records, while the second, in February, only permitted the placement of lawsuit notices. Simultaneously, the work of notaries was restricted, limiting them to issuing special powers of attorney that do not allow property transfers, while freezing general powers of attorney and sales authorisations.

Meanwhile, for more than three months, the real estate documentation offices in Daraa have remained closed, having ceased operations immediately on December 8, 2024. Although there were reports of their reopening in March, these offices have not resumed activity, leaving thousands of property transactions in limbo. The freeze covers all types of transactions, from ownership transfers to inheritance, subdivision, and description corrections – all necessary procedures for issuing new title deeds or confirming changes to properties.

The surveying department – the core component on which all real estate transactions depend – has been without staff since the end of 2023, after two surveyors resigned due to low salaries and the remaining three retired. With no new appointments made, the department is now entirely out of service, preventing the completion of surveying reports, subdivision approvals, boundary markings, and other essential steps for registering any property-related transaction. This technical incapacity renders any resumption of documentation office activities merely symbolic, as most transactions cannot proceed without support from the surveying department. It also creates further chaos in determining property boundaries and ownership, given the absence of authorised staff to resolve disputes and confirm property rights on the ground.

With the continued closure of documentation offices and the suspension of judicial decision enforcement, buyers in Daraa have been left with no option but to resort to civil courts to place lawsuit notices on property records as a preventive measure to stop the property from being resold. Although this step is administratively recognised, it is not a substitute for formal ownership registration and leaves buyers in a legally unstable position.

Placing a lawsuit notice is currently one of the simplest available procedures, requiring only a single court session where the judge approves the notice based on the sales agreement. The cost of this procedure is estimated at between SYP 1.5 and 2 million – approximately USD 150 – varying depending on the property’s location (inside or outside the relevant zoning plan) and lawyer fees.

However, these notices do not guarantee full protection, especially with no official staff available to monitor verdict enforcement or resolve disputes. Cases of double sales of the same property and neighbour disputes due to undefined boundaries have begun to emerge, increasing the risk of fraud and adding pressure on already strained courts.

The situation worsened with the issuance of an official memorandum from the Ministry of Finance on March 2, requesting courts not to refer property sale verdicts for registration in the real estate records. This effectively disables the enforcement of final rulings issued by civil courts.

Despite the near-total suspension of documentation office operations, the Cadastral Affairs office is still offering limited services such as issuing property extracts and survey data, but it cannot complete full transactions. In this void, additional problems have appeared, such as delays in formalising sales agreements made before the fall of the Assad regime, where the buyers had paid the transfer fees to the finance offices but were left hanging at the final signature stage. One head of a real estate documentation office noted that this paralysis invites fraud, as sellers can resell properties due to the lack of official registration. The delay also disrupts financial agreements, particularly where payment was agreed in Syrian pounds, as exchange rates fluctuate during the waiting period, leaving part of the payment unsettled until the transaction is registered. With general powers of attorney suspended and notaries restricted to issuing special powers that do not confer full disposal rights, buyers now face legal limbo, lacking adequate protection and with no clear prospect of returning to formal procedures.

The state of real estate documentation in Daraa after the fall of the previous regime reveals a legal and administrative vacuum that the new authorities appear unable to address. The offices are non-functional, verdicts are unenforced, and there is no technical staff to support even a gradual return to operations. In the meantime, disputes and uncertainty are mounting, and residents are forced to seek temporary solutions outside the official framework, amid the absence of even minimal coordination between judicial and administrative institutions.