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Profile: The General Company for Roads and Water Projects

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On May 9, the Syrian President issued Decree No. 98 merging the General Company for Roads and Bridges and the General Company for Water Projects into a new entity called the General Company for Roads and Water Projects.

Damascus’ strategy to merge state owned companies in a bid to optimise costs dates back to the early 2000s. However, this new merger is part of a policy adopted by the Council of Ministers since October 2023, aimed at developing these institutions and companies, and enhancing their service, developmental, and economic roles. Regarding issues related to housing, land and property rights, Decree No. 98 of 2024 follows Decree No. 3 of 2024, which established the General Company for the Manufacturing and Marketing of Cement and Building Materials – Omran, replacing the General Establishment for Cement and Building Materials and the General Establishment for Domestic Trade in Metals and Building Materials.

Decree No. 98 of 2024 does not explicitly mention any role for the new company in implementing social housing projects. However, the merged companies have previously, and continue to, undertake infrastructure and service works related to social housing. It is expected that the new company will continue to complete projects previously assigned to the merged companies. The decree stipulates that the new company will assume the rights and obligations of the two former companies and will continue to operate under their existing regulations until new executive instructions are issued.

According to Decree No. 98, the objective of the new company is to develop advanced infrastructure for public entities, optimise the use of human and material resources and technical expertise in the construction sector, maximise the use of engineering machinery and production centres, and ensure coordination and integration between existing construction companies.

Chapter Three of the decree outlines the specialisations and duties of the company: these include construction contracting and public works, both within Syria and abroad. This encompasses the construction of roads, ports, airports, bridges, tunnelling, and dams, divided into two main activities: road and bridge works, and water project works.

The new company is endowed with legal personality and financial and administrative independence, with a capital of SYP 52 billion. It is headquartered in Hama and is affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. The company operates as a contractor under state guarantee and engages in all activities specified in Decree No. 98 of 2024 and Decree No. 84 of 2005, which regulates the work of public sector construction institutions. This allows it to establish joint ventures under the investment law in place in the country.

The decree specifies that the company has a supervisory role in several tasks, including providing information and statistics for the construction and contracting sectors. On the operational level, the company will manufacture and import building materials related to its work.

General Company for Roads and Bridges

The General Company for Roads and Bridges was a public sector construction company functioning as a general contracting company and affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. It was established in 2003 with a capital of SYP 2 billion under Decree No. 168, already by merging several state-owned companies, including Qasioun and the General Company for Roads (Rodco.) The General Company for Roads and Bridges enjoyed financial and administrative independence, with its work overseen and its objectives set by a Board of Directors composed of nine members, including the Minister of Housing.

Although the primary goal of establishing the General Company for Roads and Bridges was to develop infrastructure for the road transport sector, it diversified its operations into other sectors such as railways, silos and mills, asphalt mixing, and precast concrete. It also undertook some social housing projects. According to official data, the company had been involved in projects in Russia, Lebanon, and Sudan. Before 2011, the company owned 1,757 pieces of engineering, construction, and service equipment. However, like other construction companies, it experienced a decline in operations after 2011, suffering losses, equipment theft, and project damage.

The company completed some infrastructure work at the new Hama University in 2021, valued at SYP 13 billion. According to a statement by its General Manager, Mohammad Assi, reported by the semi-official newspaper Al-Watan in May, the company’s plan for 2023 was to generate revenues of SYP 194 billion, although it exceeded this budget. It also earned profits of SYP 25 billion. Mr Assi added that the company’s revenue plan for the current year was SYP 153 billion.

The General Company for Water Projects

The General Company for Water Projects was a public sector company established in 2003 by Decree No. 167, through the merger of the General Company for Land Reclamation and the General Company for Irrigation and Drinking Water (Rima) The company aimed to construct dams, irrigation and land reclamation projects, irrigation pumping stations, drinking water projects, water filtration plants, sewage projects, and sewage treatment plants. Affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, it was originally headquartered in Raqqa before temporarily relocating to Tartous in 2013. The company had legal personality and financial and administrative independence.

Despite not being specialised in housing projects, the company completed several residential projects, notably the construction of youth, savings, and workers’ housing in residential towers 12, 14, and 16 in the Al-Wafaa suburb of Hama city. It also undertook the prefabricated housing units “Sandwich Panel” project for the victims of the  February 6, 2023 earthquake in the Lattakia governorate and the youth housing project in Lattakia city.

Profile: Cooperative Housing Directorate

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The Cooperative Housing Directorate (CHD), part of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, is responsible for regulating the cooperative housing sector. This sector is financed by housing cooperatives to provide affordable housing for their members. Since its establishment in 2008, the directorate has evolved, transitioning from working alongside the General Union  of Housing Cooperatives (GUHC) to replacing it in 2019.

The cooperative housing sector complements the social housing programmes implemented by state-owned construction companies. Housing cooperatives often rely on purchasing land from the state at low prices to build homes for their members. Additionally, building materials are sold to cooperatives at reduced prices. Members of cooperative housing schemes are treated similarly to those in social housing in terms of payment installments and allocations. However, an individual can benefit from only one of these options, and only once in their lifetime.

The first legislation to regulate various types of associations was Legislative Decree No. 65 of 1950. During the Syrian-Egyptian union, Law No. 93 of 1958 was enacted to impose Egyptian cooperative law, which linked all cooperatives, including housing cooperatives, to the then Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour.

In 1961, the GUHC was established to act as a syndicate for housing cooperatives. In 1981, Cooperative Housing Law No. 13 was issued to regulate their operations and establish the GUHC as a mediator between housing cooperatives and the Ministry of Housing.

Law No. 13 of 1981 stipulated that the Ministry of Housing is responsible for supervising and monitoring the cooperative housing sector, including reviewing the activities of housing cooperatives and the GUHC to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The law also mandated Ministry of Housing employees to attend general meetings of housing cooperatives, defined their roles in overseeing the cooperatives’ activities, and specified their compensation for attending these meetings, which is to be borne by the respective cooperatives.

Law No. 17 of 2007 amended Law 13 of 1981, introducing the Cooperative Housing Directorate of the Ministry of Housing for the first time. However, its establishment was delayed until the issuance of the Ministry of Housing Decision No. 616 in 2008. The CHD’s role is to oversee and regulate the cooperative housing sector. The Directorate shares supervisory duties over housing cooperatives with the GUHC.

Despite numerous challenges, the cooperative housing sector has managed to build approximately 220,000 housing units over the past decades, compared to only 77,000 units constructed by social housing projects.

In 2011, Decree No. 99 on cooperative housing was issued, abolishing all preceding laws and enhancing the role of the CHD in monitoring and supervising the GUHC and housing cooperatives. During this period, the impact of the Syrian war, economic deterioration, and the loss of control by the government over parts of the country significantly affected cooperative operations, leading to the shutdown of many cooperatives. The number of cooperatives declined from 3,159 in 2013 to around 2,500 in 2019.

Legislative Decree No. 37 of 2019 permanently dissolved the GUHC, transferring its duties, functions, and movable and immovable properties to the CHD within the Ministry of Housing. Following this, the Ministry of Housing launched an extensive campaign to dissolve and liquidate hundreds of inactive housing cooperatives, those without actual building projects, or those that had ceased operations.

The tasks of the CHD include overseeing and regulating all decisions of housing cooperatives, including the dissolution and liquidation of associations and the protection of cooperative members’ rights. The Directorate also reviews proposals and decisions from cooperatives, manages financing for beneficiaries of cooperative properties, and ensures that housing projects are completed within specified timeframes.

The Directorate is headquartered in Damascus and headed by the Director of Cooperative Housing in Syria. It has regional branches in the governorates, each overseeing the housing cooperatives within their geographic jurisdiction, led by a General Director of CHD for the governorate. Each directorate consists of several departments, including the Administrative and Financial Department, the Supervision, Control, and Follow-up Department, the Statistics and Information Department, and the Computer Division.

As a result of the dissolution, liquidation, and merger decisions led by the CHD, the number of cooperatives decreased to 1,860 in 2024, of which 1,481 are active. According to official figures, there are still around 800,000 applicants in the cooperative housing sector, with 94,000 cooperative housing units currently under construction.

The dissolution and liquidation of cooperatives have been a loss for the applicants, as the laws governing them only return the amounts paid by applicants in Syrian pounds upon liquidation. In addition to losing their housing, this also means that applicants lose the previous installments they have paid, due to high inflation and the depreciation of the Syrian pound.

The dissolution of the GUHC and its replacement by the CHD have not significantly changed the situation. The dissolution and liquidation of inactive cooperatives were not accompanied by the establishment of new cooperatives, and there have been no reports of housing allocations to applicants since 2020. The CHD allocated building plots to large cooperatives to assist with housing projects in rural Damascus, such as Al-Fayhaa suburb, most of which was allocated to housing cooperatives, although none of them completed the construction works. These cooperatives were supposed to build 11,000 apartments in Al-Fayhaa suburb by 2020, which has not happened to date.

Thousands Risk Losing Access to Social Housing Programmes

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The Council of Ministers approved on March 26 a settlement for thousands of applicants of social housing programmes that had had their subscription cancelled since the beginning of this year because they failed to pay their monthly instalments for eight consecutive months. The programmes affected are the Youth and Labour housing programmes.

The settlement included imposing extremely high fines that are disproportionate to the monthly incomes of the applicants and that, in some cases, exceed the market value of the monthly instalments. If the fines are not paid, the subscription to these affordable housing programmes will be permanently cancelled.

This settlement, instead of resolving the issue of cancelling the subscriptions of many applicants, has instead become an additional problem for applicants, especially those wishing to continue their adherence to the youth housing projects.

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing, through its construction companies, including the General Housing Establishment (GHE), implements social housing programmes aimed at providing low or medium-cost housing and sells it to applicants in an affordable manner. The ministry relies on Legislative Decree No. 26 of 2015, which outlines the operations of GHE, along with its executive instructions issued in Decision No. 8 of 2016.

Applications for the youth housing project began in 2002, and by 2005, the number of applicants had reached approximately 62,000. According to recently published data from the GHE, there are currently 55,000 applicants. The completion of youth housing projects was originally planned for between 2012 and 2016, but in reality, most of these projects are still under construction, or construction has not yet begun.

In August 2022, the Ministry of Housing issued Decision No. 6375, which amended the terms for paying monthly instalments in social housing projects. The new terms state that a delay in paying monthly instalments for 240 consecutive days is sufficient to cancel the subscription or the allocation of social housing without the need to warn or notify the applicant.

Subsequently, in its letter No. 11838/6, dated December 3, 2023, the GHE called on youth and labour housing applicants to collect their new electronic cards before the end of 2023. These cards would enable them to pay instalments exclusively via the National Electronic Payment System starting from the beginning of 2024. However, a significant number of applicants were surprised to find no cards issued in their names and that they had been excluded from the payment lists. Many subscriptions were considered cancelled due to irregular payment of monthly instalments for over 240 consecutive days (eight months), retroactively applied to before 2016, even if they had previously settled their payments. According to local media, this affected about 5,000 applicants in youth housing projects across areas controlled by the Damascus government and hundreds in labour housing projects.

In a meeting on March 26, the Council of Ministers, addressing the legal gap that caused the issue, adopted a settlement proposal from the Ministry of Housing. This proposal gives owners of cancelled subscriptions a deadline of July 28 to regularise their status and pay their outstanding instalments with fines.

The Ministry of Housing did not publish the text of the proposal, and the Cabinet did not release the details of the settlement or mention any decision on this matter. Conversely, on April 4, the GHE issued announcement No. 2459/6, inviting those eligible for the settlement, or their legal representatives, to visit the establishment’s branches to review the conditions, bringing with them bank statements related to their payments. However, the GHE later issued another announcement, No. 3130/6, on May 14, removing the requirement for the presence of the applicants or their legal representatives, allowing anyone to settle the status of the cancelled ledger on behalf of its owner.

According to the procedures, settlement involves a single clause: imposing new fines on the owners of the cancelled subscriptions in order to reactivate them, or permanently cancelling the subscription if the fines are not paid. This is based on Article 25 of Decree No. 26 of 2015, which states that subscriptions or allocations can be cancelled due to the applicant’s failure to comply with payment conditions. In such cases, previous payments are refunded after deducting administrative expenses amounting to 10 percent.

Notably, the GHE did not specify the amount of the fines or the calculation method. Instead, it linked the fines to the duration of the delay or irregularity in payments, to be calculated individually for each case. According to testimonies from applicants who spoke to official media after settling, fines range between SYP 2 and 15 million. It should be mentioned that most of the monthly instalments do not exceed SYP 8,000. The GHE stipulated that the fine must be paid in full and cannot be paid in instalments.

Many of those currently seeking settlement had previously settled and received clearance from the GHE. However, the GHE recalculated their previous delays and demanded a new settlement. Some suggest there were electronic errors in calculating the delay periods following the GHE’s digitisation of its files. Some applicants who wished to settle filed objections to the fines imposed on them, revealing in many cases errors due to repeated fine calculations.

General Housing Establishment Cancels Thousands of Social Housing Subscriptions

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The General Housing Establishment (GHE), affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, announced in Letter No. 11838/6 dated December 3, 2023, that applicants to Youth and Labour housing programmes must continue to pay their instalments exclusively through the national electronic payment system starting from early 2024. The GHE also invited applicants to collect their newly issued electronic cards by the end of 2023. The GHE considered its Letter No. 11838/6 a sufficient personal notification to all applicants.

However, upon visiting the GHE offices, many applicants were surprised to find no cards issued in their names. They were informed of their exclusion from the payment lists on the pretext of previous violations that forfeited their project rights. According to unofficial sources speaking to local media, those applicants were excluded from social housing programs and their subscriptions cancelled due to their failure to make regular payments for their monthly instalments for periods exceeding 240 consecutive days (eight months) retroactively before 2016. According to local media, this affected about 5,000 applicants in Youth housing projects across regions under the regime’s control and hundreds of applicants in Labour housing projects.

The Ministry of Housing, through its construction companies such as the GHE, implements social housing programmes aimed at providing low or medium-cost housing and selling it to applicants via a streamlined process. The ministry bases this process on Legislative Decree No. 26 of 2015 and its executive instructions issued by Decision No. 8 of 2016, which regulate the operations of the GHE. This law is the latest amendment related to the operations of the GHE, which was established in 1961.

The general director of the GHE, Rama Daher, justified these actions in comments to the pro-government website Syria Home News in January 2024. She stated that Law No. 26 of 2015 and its executive instructions stipulate that a delay in instalment payments for a consecutive period of 240 days results in the loss of the applicant’s right to the subscription, while a delay for a non-consecutive period of 240 days leads to the loss of their turn and priority.

Indeed, Ministry of Housing Decree No. 6375 of 2022 stipulated an amendment to the operations of the GHE as per Law No. 26 of 2015. In case of delay in paying monthly instalments for a continuous period of 240 days, the subscription is deemed automatically cancelled without the need to warn or notify the applicant. Their payments are refunded after deducting administrative expenses of 10 percent of the total payments.

However, the provisions of Law No. 26 of 2015 apply to projects announced by the GHE after the issuance of its executive instructions in 2016, while projects subscribed to before that remain subject to previous laws and regulations. These previous regulations do not mention the possibility of cancelling the subscription in case of payment delay but only impose fines and additional fees. This includes most Youth housing projects that were announced and whose subscriptions began in 2002. They were supposed to be completed by 2012 but mostly remain unfinished.

Another problem arose from the retroactive cancellation of subscriptions. Some people whose subscriptions were cancelled had previously settled their financial situations and paid their instalments for more than eight consecutive months based on offers made by the GHE.

The GHE has issued at least one such announcement annually since 2011, the last being in April 2023. During that period, the GHE accepted instalment payments from those who had delayed payment for more than eight consecutive months and granted them financial clearance. This clearance is a required document for trading subscription ledgers, a process similar to a stock exchange for social housing, most of which are still unfinished projects. The GHE’s cancellation of subscriptions for this group, who paid their overdue instalments, settled their situations and received financial clearance, means they have been trading cancelled subscription ledgers in the past period, which will cause harm to the buyers of those ledgers.

Ms Daher justified this by the lack of a previous automated link between the data of the Real Estate Bank, where instalments are paid, and the data of the GHE regarding applicants who are late on their payments. Therefore, it was not easy to monitor the process of instalment collection at the Real Estate Bank and match it with the GHE’s data to identify those who were late. She added that in 2023, the GHE completed its digital transformation and electronic payment system, making the data automated and verified for all applicants. Based on the automated database, the subscriptions were cancelled for those who had exceeded a continuous eight-month payment hiatus.

Competition Launches for Planning and Designing Youth Housing in Idlib

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Earlier this month, the Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction of the Ministry of Local Administration and Services under the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in Idlib announced a competition to plan and design two youth housing projects. The competition opened on November 12 to those interested in urban planning, including companies and architectural engineers, to provide planning and design studies for the North and South Youth Housing projects.

Damascus’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing has owned the land for both projects since at least 2005. However, work on these social housing projects ceased after 2012, when Idlib fell out of the regime’s control.

The SSG ministry has set a one-and-a-half-month deadline for submissions. Several prizes have been allocated as follows: USD 3,500 for the first place and USD 1,500 for the second place for the design of the North Youth Housing project, and USD 7,000 for the first place and USD 3,500 for the second place for the design of the South Youth Housing project.

The submitted planning studies must include a planning concept, a general site plan, architectural plans for each building, details of finishing, and construction techniques used. The studies must adhere to the Syrian construction code and its appendix regarding earthquakes and insulation and include a calculation memorandum for all project elements aligned with planning and design principles.

According to a local correspondent for The Syria Report, the Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction has a timetable for implementing the winning designs, issuing public tenders for their execution and opening the subscription process for housing in them.

The directorate offered two properties for the youth housing projects. The first, covering 26 hectares next to the University District, is the North Project. This project, initiated by Damascus’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing in 2005, had 1,485 applicants. The first phase was supposed to be completed in 2010 and the second in 2012. However, only a small part of the North Project has been actually completed, and 192 apartments were allocated to applicants in 2018. Allocation means signing a contract between the directorate and the applicant, specifying the location and specifications of the dwelling, the amounts paid, and any amounts remaining. However, this does not mean the building has been completed and handed over to its owners.

According to the Directorate, the space allocated for housing in the North Project is about 35 percent of the land area (including the previously implemented part), with 10 percent for service facilities, 15 percent for schools, and 15 percent for parks, squares and playgrounds, with the rest for streets and parking. The expected population density of the project does not exceed 400 people per hectare. The apartments range from 65 to 110 square metres and no more than six storeys per residential building.

Meanwhile, the South Project will be built on a 35-hectare property south of the city of Idlib, with work initially planned to start in 2012, but the uprising and war prevented implementation. The property is near the Governor’s Palace on the southern outskirts of Idlib city. It follows some of the same planning principles as the North Project, with notable differences including apartment sizes ranging from 75 to 250 square metres, 20 plots (each 800 to 1,000 square metres) allocated for small villas, and two one-hectare plots for 20-storey towers including floors for commercial, recreational and service activities, and basements for parking.

Housing for Earthquake Survivors in Aleppo to be Built on Land Formerly Inhabited by IDPs

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Recent weeks have seen government housing projects announced as part of the long-term third phase of the National Action Plan to address the earthquake aftermath (dubbed “People First”), which the Council of Ministers declared on February 15 and approved a month later. 

In addition to providing accommodation for earthquake survivors, these projects aim to rezone and rebuild some informal settlements in east Aleppo, including Al-Maasrania suburb.  

Suhail Abdul Latif, the Minister of Public Works and Housing, inspected progress on government housing for eligible earthquake victims on June 3. A week later, Prime Minister Hussein Arnous was briefed on the project, which consists of four buildings comprising 120 flats, each ranging in size from 65 to 90 square metres, with a total floor area of 10,000 square metres, at a total estimated cost of SYP 18.6 billion. According to official announcements last June, the project is about 28 percent completed. The Military Construction Implementation Establishment, a part of the Ministry of Defence, is carrying it out.

A source in the Aleppo City Council told The Syria Report that the government would build the housing project for the earthquake victims on the ruins of unlicensed buildings partially or entirely damaged in combat. The buildings, located near Sayyida Zeinab Street and the Paint Factory in Al-Maasrania, had been previously demolished by the City Council in March and April 2021. At the time, the City Council carried out a demolition campaign targeting 50 buildings, most of whose owners had been forcibly displaced to opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria.

However, the City council did not announce at the time about these demolitions, which were part of a beautification plan to upgrade roads, sanitation and water networks in the suburb. The project involved demolishing unlicensed buildings partially or entirely damaged in combat when the opposition-controlled east Aleppo between 2012 and 2016. The City Council refused to grant renovation permits for the partially damaged buildings because they were in areas of mass unlicensed construction.

It remains unclear whether the earthquake victims’ housing project will be built on the same parcel of the land previously seized in Al-Maasrania for the benefit of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, where a youth housing project has been ongoing since 2002.

Al-Maasrania is located on the Aleppo-Raqqa highway near Aleppo International Airport. Initially, the suburb consisted of agricultural lands where construction was prohibited, and which were owned by the Sabouni, Benqisli, and Jabli families from Aleppo. However, informal settlements began to appear in the area in 1971, inhabited mainly by people who migrated to Aleppo city from rural areas. Many were employees in government institutions, ministries, police departments and the military. Since the 1970s, these newcomers would buy small plots of land and build unlicensed homes. It became customary for buyers to file lawsuits against the sellers to verify the sales, through which they obtain a court ruling confirming the transaction – the only document proving their ownership of the land. Meanwhile, the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs refused to document such sales, rejecting the recognition of its de facto subdivision and the existence of construction on it.

In 1982, the state confiscated agricultural lands in Al-Maasrania close to Aleppo International Airport, including 36 properties that it seized only partially. Nevertheless, the process of unlicensed construction on the partially seized plots continued. These properties extended from the Scientific Research facility to the east, formerly known as the Paint Factory neighbourhood, to the Sayyida Zeinab Mosque neighbourhood to the south and to the west in the Shulba neighbourhood. The City Council considered the entire Al-Maasrania neighbourhood an area of collective unlicensed construction. In 2002, ownership of the 36 partially seized plots was transferred to the General Housing Establishment, which launched a youth housing project to build 4,000 residential flats on a 68-hectare area. Of these flats, 215 were allocated as paid alternative housing for those who had been notified that their homes would be demolished in the project zone.

Then in 2007, the Aleppo City Council demolished 50 unlicensed houses in the youth housing project area. Law enforcement surrounded the area, assaulting those who tried to halt the demolition of their homes. The City Council promised that evicted residents would be given priority in subscribing to the paid alternative housing in the project area. However, by 2010, only a small portion of the entire project had been completed, much like all social housing projects in Syria.

Al-Maasrania became a dangerous area after 2012 due to its proximity to the airport. It was subject to air strikes by the regime until 2016, resulting in widespread devastation. In December 2016, all residents were displaced outside of Aleppo city. Then, on December 20, 2020, the General Housing Establishment cancelled the subscriptions of those who had not paid their required instalments in more than a year, essentially removing forcibly displaced people.

SSG Registers Youth Housing Applicants in Idlib

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On July 5, the Syrian Salvation Government’s (SSG) Ministry of Local Administration and Services announced that it would grant a one-month time period (July 8-August 7, 2023) for the youth housing project applicants in Idlib to confirm their subscriptions to receive homes in the project.  

This confirmation process is a new procedure and appears to be directed toward identifying applicants who are able and interested in resuming paying the instalments they owe for homes in the youth housing project, which has been suspended for years. 

The July 8-August 7 confirmation period is the second period granted in less than two months and targets applicants who did not confirm their subscriptions during the two-week deadline ending on July 5. Those wishing to verify their subscriptions must go in person to present their subscription ledger and any receipts for previous payments in addition to their ID. 

Youth housing is one type of social housing programmes implemented by public authorities across Syria. The programmes were suspended in areas outside regime control in 2011. In the Idlib governorate, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing had planned to construct youth housing north of Idlib city, along the Idlib-Maaret Misrin highway. Subscriptions for this project opened in 2005, with 1,485 people signing up. The project was divided into two phases: the first was meant to be completed in 2011, and the second in 2012. 

The minister allocated 26 hectares of agricultural land for the project and began pavement and levelling work by removing 2,880 olive trees from the construction site. Then in 2009, the ministry contracted with the Idlib governorate branch of the Military Housing Establishment (MHE) to build 600 housing units for the project’s first phase. However, like other social housing projects, the Idlib project saw setbacks and poor implementation in the lead-up to 2011, and the completion rate was below 20 percent in the first phase. According to official statements, the second phase’s completion rate was just five percent. Meanwhile, there are many discrepancies in the government’s statistics on the number of applicants, the completed housing units and units still under construction before 2011. 

Then in 2012, opposition forces seized control of the Idlib governorate. Authority over the area changed hands until the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham formed in 2017, and its SSG governing body took control. From 2012-2017, the youth housing project site sat neglected, and construction work was at a standstill. 

The SSG’s Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction, under the Ministry of Local Administration and Services, formed several technical and legal committees and subdivided 192 apartments in the youth housing project for applicants. Real estate subdivision means dividing a property through a technical transaction carried out by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs and per plans approved by the local administrative unit. These apartments were registered under their owners’ names in the Idlib governorate’s Department of Cadastral Affairs, which granted them title deeds. Notably, these subdivided apartments are still not yet fully constructed. The Syria Report could not independently verify the criteria the Directorate of Housing used to allocate and subdivide these properties or if their owners had finished paying them. 

Then in 2019, the SSG housed 180 displaced families from East Ghouta in the youth housing apartments after an NGO, Syria Relief, conducted urgent rehabilitation work on the homes. Syria Relief was founded in the UK in 2011 and implements long-term development and livelihood projects. But nine months later, the SSG notified the East Ghouta families that they needed to vacate the apartments, as youth housing applicants were demanding they receive their rights to the homes. The SSG then moved the East Ghouta families to its housing projects in Jabal Kalli, Mashhad Rouhin and Al-Kamouna north of Idlib city, which had been built for them by various NGOs. However, some live informally in unfinished apartments within the Idlib youth housing project. 

Pressure has grown for housing in Idlib due to numerous large waves of forced displacement from the regime-held territory to the governorate. In 2019, the SSG began considering completing the youth housing project but has yet to carry out any new construction work. Instead, the SSG has done only administrative work, such as re-organising transactions by old applicants, to prepare for returning to work on the project, the Director of SSG’s Director of Housing and Reconstruction AbdelMonaem Al-Hout, told The Syria Report. 

Al-Hout explained that the youth housing applicants to whom the SSG granted deadlines to confirm their subscriptions are the same applicants who signed up under the General Housing Establishment (GHE) in 2005 and still reside in Idlib. They also have not completed paying their instalments on the housing due post-2011. Since the directorate’s first announcement in June, it has reviewed 583 applicants’ applications. 

However, there is an issue with some applicants living outside of SSG-controlled territory, whether in regime areas or outside Syria. As the SSG stipulated in its announcement, they cannot visit in person to confirm their subscription. According to sources from the Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction, old applicants who haven’t confirmed their subscriptions will be considered to have forfeited their subscription rights. However, their rights to their previous payments as recorded in the subscription ledgers and receipts will be preserved. Apartments for which nobody has applied to confirm their subscriptions will be offered up for new applicants to replace the “forfeiters.” 

The housing directorate has not specified the value for the new payment instalments owed for the housing. However, sources in the directorate told The Syria Report they would be close to the value of the old instalments. They will also consider the costs and timeline for completing the project. This claim, however, does not appear realistic amid recent currency devaluation, as the subscription fee in 2005 was SYP 70,000, and the monthly instalments were SYP 2,500. 

In any case, the Directorate of Housing and Reconstruction has no clear plan to finish work on the youth housing project, though is amending the old engineering plans as they no longer correspond with new urban development and expansion in the city. Once the new plans are approved, then construction tenders will be announced, and the directorate will supervise implementation. According to Hout, the project will receive special funding from the directorate, which the applicants’ payments will finance. This means that, for the time being, work is currently focused only on confirming the rights of applicants and collecting their payments to build a budget for completing the housing project.

Government Amends Conditions for Social Housing Subscriptions and Allocations

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On August 16, 2022, Syria’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing issued Decree No. 6375, which amended Article 37 of Decree No. 8 of 2016 concerning the General Housing Establishment (GHE) Operations System. Article 37 relates to the conditions for monthly instalments for social housing by subscribers or those who have been allotted such housing. 

The amended Article 37 is as follows: “If a housing subscriber, or someone who has been allotted housing, is 240 consecutive days late in paying their monthly instalments, i.e. they have failed to pay eight consecutive monthly instalments, then their subscription or allotment shall be cancelled. It is not necessary to warn or notify them. Their payments shall be returned to them after deducting administrative expenses, which amount to 10 percent of the payments.” For comparison, the original Article 37 stipulated such cancellations if payments are delayed for 240 consecutive or nonconsecutive days. 

In real estate terms, allocating housing to a subscriber means that a contract has been made between the subscriber and the GHE. The contract outlines each party’s obligations and includes the location and a description of the housing unit. Allocation usually occurs after the subscriber pays 30 percent of the unit’s value. However, allocation does not necessarily mean that construction on the home is complete or the completion date is near, though it does serve as a title deed provided that the remaining financial obligations are met. 

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing implements numerous social housing programmes to provide low- and medium-cost housing and sell it to citizens. The GHE’s Operations System, issued in Decree No. 8 of 2016, serves as the executive instructions for Decree No. 26 of 2015, which established the system. 

Decree No. 6375 this past August eased the conditions for late payments amid the inability of many subscribers to meet their financial obligations. However, the ministry later released a contradictory decree in September stipulating higher monthly payments for youth housing programme subscribers, from SYP 8,000 to SYP 25,000. 

The director of the GHE told the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper that rising construction costs were to blame for the increased prices. He added that the new prices will not affect the total value of housing provided by the programme and will help subscribers meet their 30 percent payment thresholds for allocation more quickly. 

In January 2022, the GHE issued new appraised values for social housing ready for allocation. The GHE estimated the average value of prepared homes in youth and savings housing programmes at SYP 596 and SYP 385 per square metre. That means the estimated price of a 100-square-metre youth housing apartment now costs around SYP 6 million, compared with SYP 1 million in 2004. These prices appear unattainable. For example, if a subscriber’s monthly payment is SYP 25,000, it will take them 200 years to finish paying off their apartment. 

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