Rental Prices in Aleppo Soar Following Return of Refugees

Property rental prices in Aleppo have risen in recent months driven both by increased demand fuelled by refugee returns and by real-estate agents acting as intermediaries in social media pages that are pushing these prices even higher. This hike in prices comes amidst an ongoing economic crisis marked by the depreciation of the Syrian pound, soaring prices, and declining real wages.

Ziad Ismail, the owner of a real estate office in the Al-Furqan neighbourhood in western Aleppo, explained that Aleppans returning from Turkey post-Assad have played the most prominent role in driving up housing prices and rents, due to the increased demand. As most of the returnees are families with children in various stages of education who sought to return before the new school year, Mr Ismail expects the supply and demand to rebalance and rental prices to decline in the short term.

The returnees from Turkey are largely from the middle and poorer classes who were driven by the war to seek refuge. While in Turkey, they worked in professions and trades that enabled them to accumulate reasonable capital, with which they can now resettle in Aleppo and start small businesses.

Many of the returnees have relied on social media, “particularly Facebook,” to find apartments for rent, Mr Ismail explained. In the absence of any regulatory framework or functioning professional unions, social-media intermediaries have become de facto price-setters in Aleppo’s property market. Many of these page administrators, often real-estate agents themselves, coordinate offers and spread inflated price claims on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram to shape market expectations and maximise their profits.

Anyone seeking to rent a flat in Aleppo can choose from what is offered on social media, then view it in person accompanied by the owner, their agent, or the real-estate office owner. If an agreement is reached on the price and the rental period, this is recorded in a contract certified by the City Council to guarantee the rights of both parties. Purchasing properties, however, remains more complicated and difficult due to challenges in registering them in the Land Registry since the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024. Registration has recently been allowed but under strict conditions.

Abu Ahmad, the owner of a real estate office in the New Shahba neighbourhood in western Aleppo, explained how he personally drives up prices through online marketing. He takes apartments offered to him for sale at ‘bargain’ prices, as well as those for rent, and advertises them on Facebook real estate trading pages. His goal is to “speculate on them and drive prices up by claiming that they were sold or rented at higher prices, then re-list them later at a new, higher price.”

To date, no serious measures have been taken to regulate the real estate market. A meeting was held on August 21 in the governorate building to discuss mechanisms to reduce prices and regulate relations between landlords and tenants. At the time, the participants discussed “regulating the value of rents” based on residential areas and the social classes living there,  according to a post on the official Facebook page of the Aleppo Governorate. Participants noted that there is still no legal framework or government body responsible for determining these values.

Real estate office owners and people active on social media marketing pages explained that current housing rents in Aleppo are five times higher than they were before the fall of the Assad regime on December 24. Today, the monthly rent for a flat in the western neighbourhoods ranges between USD 500 and USD 1,000 depending on its size and location. Most landlords rent their flats under annual, and sometimes semi-annual, contracts. As a result, tenants pay the entire rent upfront in U.S. dollars, in addition to the real-estate office’s commission – equivalent to one month’s rent – and a security deposit of at least USD 700 for furnished flats.

This situation has caused a crisis for long-time tenants in western Aleppo, as the new rent levels exceed their incomes, forcing many to move from the western neighbourhoods to the eastern parts of the city, which remain largely damaged due to the fighting from 2012 to 2016, and the aftermath of the February 2023 earthquake.

Ahmad Al-Omari, the owner of a real estate office in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood in the eastern part of the city, said that the phenomenon of rising rents “has moved from the west of the city to its east.” He noted that the average rent for a medium-sized flat in eastern Aleppo, which constitutes more than half of the city’s area, currently stands at about USD 150 per month, whereas it was previously around SYP 150,000 on average before the fall of the regime in December (equivalent to just around USD 10 at the time, when the dollar was worth SYP 15,000).