Rebuilding on whose land? Investor-led projects and expropriation around Damascus

Supported by independent sources

In March 2026 officials of the Damascus Governorate, headed by Maher Marwan, presented a plan for unnamed foreign companies to rebuild 1,100 hectares of Jobar, al-Qaboun and Bab Sharqi in exchange for about half the land. Owners would keep 50 percent of zoned residential property and 30 percent of land classified as agricultural, which includes large areas of informal housing. No investors, contracts, zoning plans or valuation mechanisms were published. ¹

Marwan argued in April that grants were unavailable, foreign loans blocked and owner-led rebuilding too slow; al-Qaboun residents called the plan “real estate expropriation” and asked for the 2015 urban planning law, with its valuation committees and court appeals, to apply. ¹

Supported by independent sources

• Abyat Hills: about 2,000 homes on some 380,000 square metres in Qudsaya suburb, by the Saudi company Abyat and the state General Housing Establishment. Minister of Public Works and Housing Mustafa Abdel Razzaq laid the foundation stone on 6 June 2026 and said the deal was signed under al-Sharaa’s patronage. ^{2 3}
• Sham View: more than 10,000 units on 178 hectares between Qudsaya and Dummar, by the Saudi company Thra and the General Housing Establishment, launched in August 2026; the first 2,000 units opened for subscription on 22 September. ^{4 5}
• Abyat is also developing a project of about 20,000 units in al-Bajaa; investment in its two projects is reported at more than $2 billion. ⁵

Supported by independent sources

On 26 and 27 September 2026 residents of Qudsaya, Dummar, al-Bajaa, Moadamiya and other towns marched on the offices of both projects, stopped machinery at Sham View and blocked access for staff. They demanded that work halt, that the expropriation decisions be reviewed and that compensation and ownership be settled before construction continues. ^{5 6 7}

The protesters say the land was expropriated under the former government for public purposes and is now being handed to private investment, while owners received little or nothing. ^{5 7}

Supported by independent sources

• The Ministry of Public Works and Housing said in a statement posted on Facebook late on 28 September that expropriation is a lawful tool, that most of the decisions date back decades and compensation was deposited and partly paid, that an objection does not return ownership automatically, and that stopping machinery or blocking roads creates no legal title. It announced a joint complaints office with the Rural Damascus governorate. ^{8 9}
• The fact-checking platform Verify-Sy reviewed 377 comments under the ministry’s Facebook statement. Opposing comments initially outnumbered supportive ones 209 to 62; then, on the evening of 29 September, 30 accounts posted supportive comments within about 18 minutes, and 17 identical texts appeared across 57 accounts, some calling owners’ claims “fictitious”. Of the accounts in that burst, 19 had been created between late August and late September 2026. Verify-Sy says the pattern indicates coordination but does not identify who ran it. ⁹
• The minister discussed the complaints with Rural Damascus governor Amer al-Sheikh on 28 September. ¹⁰
• Tamam al-Dabal, director-general of the General Housing Establishment, said compensation under the 1983 expropriation law is set at the land’s value before the decree, leaving a large gap with today’s prices. Of about 3,905 requests for in-kind compensation filed between 1997 and 2008, 730 were processed; applications would reopen. ⁷
• Abyat said it is an investor and developer, not a party to the ownership dispute, that claimants should go to the courts, and that it would continue the project and take measures to protect the site and its workers. ⁷