By Rawa Abdullah
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Housing rental rates have doubled over the past six months in the Kurdistan Region, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced from other parts of war-torn Iraq have flooded for safety, agents and house hunters say.
The United Nations estimates that 700,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have taken shelter in the three provinces of the Kurdistan Region, but unofficial figures indicate the number is more than one million. The internal influx is on top of some 250,000 refugees from Syria’s Kurdish regions.
Sabah Aziz, who owns a real estate agency, said there is virtually no demand from home buyers, and that everyone wants to rent, particularly in Erbil and Duhok. The majority of his clients, he added, are Arabs from other parts of Iraq, including the so-called “disputed territories” which Erbil and Baghdad both claim.
“There is a huge demand on rental homes. Every day we receive many requests for rentals, and 90 percent of them come from Arabs,” he said. “The huge demand has increased the rental rate by 100 percent.”
In the Kurdish capital of Erbil, rental rates range from $500 a month for a small place in some neighborhoods to $2,500 for better accommodation in better districts, Aziz said.
“At residential complexes, most of the homes used to be vacant – no one was even willing to pay $200 for rent. But now you can hardly find a house there, and the rent is at $600,” Aziz said, illustrating his point that the rental market is going through the roof.
The influx of the refugees has had a huge impact on local residents, who have found themselves squeezed out of the market, Aziz said, especially in Erbil.
“Rental rates are unbelievably high,” complained Gailan Jawad, a 24-year-old who was recently engaged and is looking for his own place. “I have visited many agencies but have found nothing,” said Gailan, who is a government employee in the mornings and works as a clerk for a doctor in the evenings.
He said that with his income, “I will not be able to get married for more than a year,” and called on Kurdish authorities to limit immigration from other parts of Iraq, especially of Arabs who have been coming in large numbers.
Soran Omer, head of the Kurdish parliament’s Human Rights Committee, said that the majority of Arabs who have sought refuge in Kurdistan are not in the camps, because the government allowed them to settle inside the cities in the beginning.
“That caused a huge economic crisis in the Kurdistan Region, and part of that is related to the increase in the price of rents and goods,” he said.
Most of the refugees, however, are housed in camps set up by the Kurdistan Regional Government with the help of the UN or other relief agencies.
Hamza Hamid, media director at the Erbil governorate office, said that authorities have tried to solve the housing problem in Erbil by distributing land in newer districts and by building thousands of housing units and prefabricated homes. But he said the influx of IDPs and refugees was overwhelming.
Hamid said that Kurdistan has limited financial capabilities and is no longer able to establish new camps because of the huge cost.
He added that the best solution is for authorities in Baghdad to expedite the formation of a new government and to oust Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) militants from the cities, towns and villages, so that people can return to their homes.
Ayub Anwar Simaqaiee, a lecturer in economics at the University of Salahaddin, believes that the uncontrolled flooding of refugees and IDPs to Kurdistan is getting out of hand. He said that their settlement should have been more controlled, to lessen the pressure on smaller cities.
“If the situation is not dealt with, the constant increase in the price of rents and goods will have a negative impact on the economic and social lives of people,” he warned.
“Since we have a semi-free market economy in Kurdistan and the government does not control fiscal and monetary policy, it cannot set the price of rents,” he explained.
“Unless the disputed territories are safe and secure, the IDPs will not return to their areas and the rental rates will continue to go up,” he warned.
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