New Directions
It is said that after the 2nd world war, Germany which was totally devastated in the 2nd World War rose from the ashes like a Phoenix and went on to become one of the leading economies of the world. This was done by the help of the allied forces and western countries through massive aid and reconstruction effort. It is expected that with the end of the war in Iraq and the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime that has controlled the country for over two decades, there is hope and a ray of sunshine for the rebuilding of the Iraqi economy which is well endowed with abundant natural resources of oil and natural gas, enough to lift it from the morass of poverty and the ravages of war. Investing in real estate in Iraq under such circumstances was a dead deal, a virtual impossibility.
There is a new sense of direction in the way real estate development is taking place in Iraq. This holds out new promise and a hope of confidence that the sector would find a resurgence it has been yearning for. a lot of Iraqis, some of them very wealthy citizens had fled during the years of Saddam and during and after the Kuwait invasion too. It seems that the world had fallen apart for real estate brokers and agents. Hardly would there be any deals in a violence ravaged country. People who turn up at office in the hope that at least someone would turn up for a property deal, but alas, for months and even a couple of years, there was no respite. The spate of car and suicide bombings that took place every now and then ensured that investing in real estate in Iraq was quite well nigh impossible. Not only this, people were indeed feeling, leaving their homes and mansions behind to neighboring countries in the hope of a secure future.
Now that things are looking up, the situation has improved dramatically. The security situation is quite improved, amazingly so considering the pitiable plight earlier. In the past 18 months, there has been a veritable real estate boom as not only are expatriate Iraqis returning, but locals are also opening up their purse strings. There is a new buzz in the air and quite some vibrancy that allows greater confidence. Investing in real estate in Iraq has a peculiar feature that most transactions happen in cash. People go to the estate agency and they exchange cash and documents as the case may be. But during the insurgency, a lot of terrorist incidents took place at these places due to the possibility of looting cash, which led to the dry down of real estate deals.
Even now there is just a trickle of customers who are out in the market for real estate. There are so many people who are either employed part-time or unemployed who live in shard quarters or hovels. These people need decent accommodation in apartment blocks that have to be built by multinational companies or with government aid.
