By Eqtsad- Yusra Ahmed
Even a grave could become unaffordable in Damascus as houses allowances sharply increase.
“It is even impossible to find an affordable grave in Damascus”, that was Mohamed’s reply to a query about houses’ leasing crisis in Damascus.
Damascus has been extremely populated recently, as a result of the increasing numbers of displaced people from Damascus countryside and other cities targeted by the regime.
Zaman Alwasl interviewed staff from many real estate agents and people looking for houses to rent in Damascus. They mentioned that furnished flat’s allowance ranged between S.P75 thousand and S.P 100 thousand. “it is a huge amount of money and not affordable to many, even businessmen cannot afford it, what about the displaced people who cannot find a source of income after losing everything before leaving their homes”, Jalal, a displaced man with his wife and a family of three said.
He
added that he had been living at his sister’s home with her family for four
months, after they were forced to leave the rented house, hoping to find
another or even a studio to rent.
Real Estates agents have started putting notes about running out of houses to let. “it is almost impossible to find a house to let, as demand is much higher than supply, some letting offices took a chance of the crisis and people’s need for houses to raise the allowance”, Samer, a real estate agent said. He gave an example that a house in Barza, used to be let for S.P 12 thousands a month before the revolution, now its allowance has raised to at least S.P 50 thousand.
To control the high flood of displaced people to Damascus, regime started demanding all people who renting houses to register themselves at police stations to make sure that there is no wanted people among them. Later, a security clearance from one of security branches has become mandatory to complete the tenancy agreement; it might take at least 15 days, which needs details about each person and reasons behind coming to Damascus.
Moreover, areas with intense security branches like aljesr-Alabiad, Mohajreen, Tiliani, Rawda, Shiekh Mohiddin, Almalki are prohibited for displaced people to live in.
Khalid, a displaced man from Homs, after agonizing search for a house, was refused the security clearance needed for tenancy agreement in Shiekh Mohiddin area, which is known of “Branch 40” area, pointing to the security branch headed by Hafiz Makhlouf. “It seems that Hafiz Makhlouf think Homsi people have come from Israel, so he refused letting them live in his area” Khalid said sarcastically.
In its latest report last month, UNCHR considered Syria to be the world's leading country of forced displacement, with more than 9 million of its people have left their homes.
“As of today, 2,563,434 Syrians have registered as refugees in neighboring countries or are awaiting registration. With displacement inside Syria having reached more than 6.5 million, the number of people in flight internally and externally exceeds 40 per cent of Syria's pre-conflict population. At least half of the displaced are children” the report details.
The high flood of Syrian refugees to neighboring countries has lead to increase the houses allowance to more than three folds in Lebanon for example, as the number of Syrian refugees hit a million.
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