housing_cooperative – Syria Report

The General Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction (GDHR), under the Ministry of Local Administration and Services of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), issued Decision No. 328 on August 21, approving the official procedures for establishing new housing cooperatives operating in Idlib, north-western Syria.

This mirrors the efforts of the Cooperative Housing Directorate under the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in the Damascus Government, which oversees the cooperative housing sector. Housing cooperatives provide affordable housing.

Previously, the SSG, affiliated with hardline Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, had, through the Ministry of Local Administration and Services’ Decision No. 52 of 2018, dissolved the boards of directors of existing housing cooperatives. These boards were later reformed through elections supervised by the GDHR, based on Decision No. 599 of 2023 from the ministry. As a result of these decisions, several housing cooperatives were dissolved, while some had their boards elected and resumed operations.

Idlib counts 162 housing cooperatives, some of which are inactive or still in the process of being established, AbdulMoneim Al-Hout, head of the GDHR, told The Syria Report. There is no precise count of the beneficiaries of these cooperatives, but it is estimated that each cooperative typically consists of around 100 people. In 2024, one new cooperative was established, and two more are in the process of being formed.

Decision No. 328 of 2024 was based on SSG Prime Ministerial Decision No. 83, issued in April 2024, which outlines the regulations for housing cooperatives. According to Mr Al-Hout, the regulations in Decision No. 83 streamlined the procedures to a minimum while ensuring that the rights of cooperative members are safeguarded. He added that if a cooperative is unable to hold a general assembly meeting to elect a new board of directors due to the displacement of its members, the GDHR allows the attendance of their representatives. If this is not possible, the Directorate permits members of a single project within the cooperative to attend, form a committee, and oversee their project’s operations. If this too is unfeasible, the attendance of members from a single plot designated for construction is accepted, allowing them to form a committee and complete their plot.

The housing cooperatives’ regulations, outlined in Decision No. 83 of 2024, consist of eight chapters and 121 articles. These cover the objectives of cooperatives according to the SSG’s vision, the procedures for their establishment, membership conditions, management, member priorities based on seniority, subscription, allocation, handover, liquidation, the financial system of the cooperative, oversight, dissolution, and merging.

Decision No. 328 of 2024 also stipulates that the formation of a new housing cooperative must begin with the appointment of a temporary committee made up of three members representing the cooperative’s founders, who must number at least 20 individuals. This committee is responsible for appearing before the GDHR. The temporary committee is tasked with completing the official incorporation form and submitting an application to establish the cooperative.

According to Decision 328 of 2024, the temporary committee is responsible for submitting the founders’ documentation, ensuring they meet certain criteria. For instance, a founder must be a Syrian citizen, at least 18 years old, residing either in Idlib or elsewhere as permitted by the GDHR, not a beneficiary of housing provided by any public entity or cooperative with similar objectives, and must not own independent property along with their minor children.

Once the GDHR approves the establishment of the cooperative, the temporary committee calls for the first meeting of the cooperative’s founding assembly, during which a board of directors is elected. The temporary committee then hands over all documents, funds, and responsibilities to the newly elected board, after which the temporary committee is dissolved.

The cooperative is officially registered by publishing its establishment decision in the Official Gazette issued by the SSG, including the cooperative’s name, its registration code in the GDHR records, its address, headquarters, and the names of its board members. From the date of publication, the establishment decision comes into effect, granting the cooperative legal status.

According to pro-government media reports, during a regular meeting of the Damascus Governorate Council in mid-January 2024, members called for the subdivision and correction of descriptions for the Adawi and Eastern Tijara areas and the issuance of ownership deeds for their properties.

Nouri Salman, the director of the Provisional Land Register at the Damascus Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, explained to the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper that the subdivision and correction of descriptions for these properties are within the jurisdiction of the Damascus Directorate of Cadastral Affairs and the Damascus governorate. He added that to subdivide and correct the descriptions of these properties, a request must be submitted to the Damascus governorate to open a technical mandate for the horizontal subdivision of the area, followed by its vertical subdivision, the so-called “Building subdivision”, after which the deeds can be transferred from the Provisional Land Register to the Land Register in the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs.

The technical mandate is a process of technical inspection of a property to determine its boundaries on the ground, carried out by a committee from the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, with a representative from the administrative unit to which the property belongs. Opening a technical mandate means submitting a request to the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs in the concerned governorate to schedule a date for the technical inspection of the property.

The correction of descriptions is an administrative transaction conducted by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs upon request from the property owner. The process aims to match the property descriptions recorded in its Land Record with its actual condition. For example, a property may be recorded as agricultural land while it is actually a multi-storey building.

Meanwhile, the subdivision of a property is a technical transaction conducted by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs based on a request from the property owners. The aim is to divide the property into separate and independent properties. The property subdivision process is conducted as if the property were commonly owned.

Horizontal division involves:

Splitting the land into plots prepared for construction.
Assigning each a number.
Entering them into the Provisional Land Register.

Subsequently, the owner of one of these plots can obtain a construction permit for a building with multiple floors and residences. After the building’s completion and the sale of these homes, the plot can be vertically subdivided, creating a new land record for each apartment within the building as an independent property. These real estate occurrences are then transferred from the Provisional Land Register to the Permanent Land Register.

The Eastern Tijara and Adawi areas in Damascus are an urban extension, partly informal, located east of Damascus city. Al-Tijara and Al-Adawi are considered upscale neighbourhoods in Damascus, known for their modern construction, spacious apartments, high prices, green spaces, parks, and public amenities. The extension of the area began in the 1950s on agricultural lands known as Al-Adawi orchards.

In Eastern Tijara and Adawi, there are three types of properties: first, licensed buildings on zoned land with ownership deeds, subdivided and registered in the Land Registry, each residence having an independent land record, allowing relatively easy sale and purchase unless there are restraints on disposal against it. Most of these buildings were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s.

Second, particularly in the western part of the Eastern Tijara neighbourhood, are buildings licensed and constructed by housing cooperatives on zoned land. Most are subdivided horizontally, not vertically. These buildings were erected during the 1970s and 1980s. Reasons preventing the vertical subdivision of properties include the death of one of the owners and placing restraints on disposal mark on the entire original property until the heirs agree on dividing their shares or unresolved building violations. In such cases, the real estate occurrences are registered in the Provisional Land Legister using ownership documents issued by the Directorate of Housing Cooperation in the Ministry of Public Works and Housing to establish ownership and complete sale and purchase transactions. However, these are not transferred to the Land Registry because the property has not been subdivided vertically.

Thirdly, there are unlicensed buildings erected on zoned land more than 40 years ago in the far eastern part of the area. Still, they have not been horizontally subdivided and, therefore, not vertically subdivided either. These buildings were constructed in the 1980s, marked by construction chaos in Damascus, when landowners built on their plots before subdividing them horizontally into building-ready plots, yet adhered to the urban planning and building regulations, aiming for future licensing. In the area, there are multiple cases where a single piece of land has several buildings on it. However, it still remains as one property not subdivided into construction-ready plots. Therefore, all these buildings and the residences within them are still owned in common by their owners, with one land record. The process of horizontal subdivision has been hindered over time, especially with multiple building violations, generations of heirs, and restraints on disposal. Many of these homeowners have no proof of ownership other than court judgments affirming their purchase contracts.

According to The Syria Report’s local correspondent, there are hundreds of affected individuals in the second and third types of buildings, where these homeowners and residents cannot secure loans with their properties as collateral, obtain restoration permits, or sell them officially. The market value of these residences is much lower than their counterparts in the same area. Initiating a technical assignment process for description correction and subdivision is not as straightforward as local authorities claim. The Directorate of Cadastral Affairs requires all co-owners of a property to apply for description correction and subdivision, a hard task due to the presence of hundreds of heirs and their legal representatives, not to mention those who have emigrated or are absent.

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