Sessions of the International Real Estate Development and Engineering and Construction Forum (IREX 2026), which began today Tuesday in Damascus, discussed visions for urban planning and city development towards establishing integrated communities that combine housing, services, and economic activities, meeting the requirements of the reconstruction phase in Syria.
Participants in the forum, held at the Bab Al-Sabaa Hotel, explored ways to enhance integration between the public and private sectors to meet the demand for medium-income housing, amid challenges in financing, implementation, land provision, and controlling construction and labor costs, alongside investing in real estate opportunities to ensure projects align with purchasing power and support sustainable reconstruction.
Integrated Urban System
Deputy Minister of Public Works and Housing for Planning and Studies, Imad Al-Masri, emphasized during the first dialogue session that the ministry is working according to a national strategy to build an integrated urban system, targeting covering 20 percent of housing needs through the General Housing Establishment and the Housing Cooperation Directorate, while the larger share, 80 percent, falls on the private sector.
Al-Masri stated that the housing situation report in Syria showed a need to rehabilitate and restore 1.3 million fully or partially destroyed residences, build 700,000 new housing units, and meet needs resulting from population growth. He stressed the priority of addressing stalled projects, especially youth housing projects, which include approximately 93,000 delayed housing units.
Al-Masri noted that the national strategy involves five ministries: Public Works and Housing, Emergency and Disaster Management, Justice, Finance, and Local Administration and Environment, along with planning, academic, and international entities. It is based on five axes: planning, legislation, financing, implementation, and cooperation, distributed across 92 executive projects.
Restructuring the Contracting Sector
For his part, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Housing for Technical Affairs, Maher Khalouf, emphasized during a session titled "Real Estate Development and Investment: Do We Satisfy Immediate Needs or Create Sustainable Value?" that the ministry has worked on restructuring the capabilities of contracting companies and the engineering sector under its supervision by merging their technical and human resources and mechanisms into a unified urban system.
Khalouf clarified that this step was based on a study of the companies' reality, aiming to address redundancy and shortages in cadres and mechanisms, forming an efficient executive tool working under a unified decision, thereby enhancing implementation capacities and elevating urban planning.
Housing Need Reaches 1.9 Million Units
In turn, Osama Shaabani, Director of Housing Cooperation at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, told SANA that the directorate's participation in the forum aims to highlight the role of the cooperative sector as a fundamental solution to provide housing at cost price and appropriate quality, enhancing supply, responding to demand, and contributing to lowering prices.
Shaabani explained that the housing need in Syria amounts to approximately 1.9 million units, in addition to annual needs resulting from population growth, requiring the construction of between 300,000 and 350,000 residences annually. He noted that the ministry is working on amending legislation and developing legal frameworks to engage the private sector.
In this context, Mohammed Al-Saloum, Managing Director of the Saudi company Abayat for Real Estate Investment and Development, said the company's projects "Abayat Hills" and "Abayat City" include more than 22,000 housing units and provide over 6,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.
Al-Saloum clarified that the work involves completing 2,100 housing units within the "Abayat Hills" project and delivering them within four years, with concrete works starting within a month. Meanwhile, the implementation of the "Abayat City" project, which includes more than 20,000 housing units, will extend to eight years from the date of allocation.
Promising Investment Opportunities
For his part, Majid Al-Huwari, CEO of Analitica Engineering Consulting Company in the United Arab Emirates, emphasized that the Syrian real estate market is rich with investment opportunities and promising projects that can provide a field for work over the next 20 to 30 years.
Al-Huwari pointed to the company's efforts to transfer its expertise to the Syrian market through public-private partnerships and benefiting from regional experiences, including the Egyptian experience in addressing informal housing areas and the UAE experience in smart buildings.
The forum featured the screening of an introductory film that outlined its vision and objectives in bringing together investors, real estate developers, and engineering and construction companies, highlighting the opportunities and challenges facing the real estate sector in Syria, alongside honoring sponsoring entities.
The forum, which began its second day today Tuesday, discusses the use of artificial intelligence and Building Information Modeling (BIM) Syrian framework technologies and digital transformation for city planning and smart buildings, improving infrastructure and asset management efficiency, and adopting sustainability standards and green buildings.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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