Subscription Opens for 38 Alternative Housing Rights Holders in Marota City

On September 23, the state-owned General Housing Establishment (GHE) invited 38 eligible beneficiaries from the Marota City area to apply for alternative housing in the area designated by Decree No. 66 of 2012.

Decree No. 66 established two zoned real estate areas in Damascus: the first is Marota City and the second, south of the southern ring road, is Basilia City. All alternative housing projects in these zones, as per Decree No. 66, are located in Basilia City, where 48 residential plots have been allocated for construction. The Damascus governorate manages these zoned areas through the Directorate for the Implementation of Decree No. 66, and through the Damascus Cham Holding Company, which is affiliated with the governorate. Alternative housing is one of the social housing programmes implemented by public institutions. It is not free, and those with rights in the regulated area can apply for it.

The 38 new beneficiaries of alternative housing, according to the invitation letter No. 6977/6 issued by the GHE, are former occupants of properties within the zoned real estate areas specified by Decree 66. An eligible occupant for alternative housing is a tenant of a property that is subject to compulsory extension. This means that the lease is automatically renewed, regardless of the landlord’s consent, under the old rental law No. 111 of 1952. Decree No. 66 granted this category the right to receive 30 percent of the shares of the rented property if it is residential, and 40 percent if it is commercial. Decision No. 112 of 2015 by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing required that former tenants of properties in the zoned area must have been in actual occupancy of the property from the issuance of Decree 66 of 2012 until the time of eviction, to be eligible to apply for alternative housing.

This is the fourth time beneficiaries are invited to subscribe for alternative housing. The first time was at the end of September 2020, during which 5,516 eligible beneficiaries applied for alternative housing. The second time was on January 14, 2021, targeting those who were previously unable to apply, though there are no figures available on the number of applicants. The third subscription invitation was announced on June 27, 2023 and included only nine individuals, with no explanation provided regarding their backgrounds.

The Director of the GHE, Rama Daher, told the semi-official newspaper Al-Watan on September 25 that these eligible beneficiaries of alternative housing did not attend the previous subscription process, so they have been given another opportunity to apply now. 

The GHE’s letter No. 6977/6 serves as both an announcement and a personal notification, as well as a final warning to these 38 eligible beneficiaries, who are mentioned by name. The letter was accompanied by a list of the beneficiaries and allocated them 13 alternative housing units. This means that the 38 beneficiaries will be applying for just 13 units, resulting in multiple beneficiaries sharing a single unit. The share of each right holder in the alternative housing programme is estimated as a fractional share of 2,400 shares, which represent one apartment. Holders of small shares can combine their shares to obtain a single apartment, or one of them can buy the shares of the others. This poses a problem for small share owners who are financially unable to purchase others’ shares or are unwilling to share the apartment with others.

The list included the category, size of the housing unit for each beneficiary, the amount of the initial down payment they must make upon registering, and the monthly instalments they need to pay thereafter. Each category has a specified unit size: for example, a unit from Category A is 120 square metres, Category B is 115 square metres, Category C is 110 square metres, and Category F is 40 square metres.

The initial down payment ranges from SYP 2.6 million to 8 million, depending on the size of the apartment, which varies between 40 and 120 square metres. Monthly instalments range from SYP 33,000 for a Category A unit to SYP 11,000 for a Category F unit.

The letter outlines two main clauses: the first states that the subscription period will be open from October 1 to November 3, for eligible beneficiaries. The second clause details the three administrative steps to apply:

1. The beneficiary must submit a formal application stamped and accompanied by a copy of their ID to the Decree No. 66 Directorate in Mazzeh, Damascus, and pay the specified initial down payment.
2. After this, the applicant, or their legal representative, must present proof of the initial payment and a copy of their ID at the GHE headquarters to receive an electronic payment card. This card is essential for making subsequent payments. If there are multiple beneficiaries for one unit, one of them can be authorised to handle the procedures through a certified legal power of attorney.
3. The applicant must adhere to the payment schedule for the remaining instalments from the beginning of 2025. Failure to make payments or a delay of three consecutive months will result in the cancellation of the subscription without prior notice, and previous payments will be refunded to the subscriber after deducting administrative fees.

According to Decree No. 66, the alternative housing projects were supposed to be completed by 2018. However, Law No. 10 of 2018, which amended Decree No. 66, extended the deadline for delivering the alternative housing to four years after the area was vacated, setting the new timeline between 2019 and 2021. Yet, to date, not a single tower of the alternative housing projects has been completed, despite the expectation that they would be built by state-owned construction companies. The delays have been attributed to issues such as the fuel crisis, fluctuations in building material costs, inflation, and supply chain problems, according to official explanations.

It appears that the inability of public sector construction institutions to carry out the alternative housing projects prompted the Damascus Governorate to involve a private sector contracting company to handle part of the work. In February, Damascus Cham Management, the executive arm of Damascus Cham Holding owned by the Damascus Governorate, signed an agreement with Platinum Contracting to build alternative housing towers in Basilia City. If this initiative proves successful, the governorate plans to extend the model to complete the remaining alternative housing projects.