Kurdistan Region’s real estate sector stalls as buyers adopt wait-and-see approach

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The six-week Iran war has taken a toll on the real estate market in the Kurdistan Region which is both fragmented and stalled, brokers told Rudaw on Friday, noting that this is especially the case as both buyers and sellers continue to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

Raber Warti, a real estate agent from Erbil who has been working in the sector for more than two decades, said that “due to the impact of the war, buying and selling have decreased slightly in some places, but this does not mean prices have dropped.”

He added that usually in times of crisis or “when the market is weak, property owners themselves hold off on selling and wait for the situation to calm down” to avoid losses.

Meanwhile, Heresh Hussein, owner of a real estate agency in Erbil, said that “if someone is in urgent need of money, they list their units for sale at a loss, and it sells.” But beyond that, “the market is unstable, and most trading has stopped,” he said.

Before the Iran war “an Erbil apartment that might have sold for $40,000 now goes for $35,000,” Hussein added, noting however that “prices of real estate in highly desired areas [of the Kurdish capital] still haven't dropped.”

The United States and Israel launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran in late February, during which more than 17,000 sites were reportedly targeted over six weeks of hostilities.

In response, Iran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.

The Iranian response also involved Iraqi armed groups aligned with the Tehran-led ‘Axis of Resistance,’ with several factions claiming responsibility for attacks on purported US targets in the region, including in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Media and Information reported on Saturday that since the outbreak of the war through April 20, Erbil province alone recorded 477 incidents, including 419 drone attacks and 58 missile strikes.

Moreover, the Region’s eastern Sulaimani province endured 235 attacks, the northern Duhok province 29, and Soran district northeast of Erbil 68, bringing the total to 809 attacks.

The KRG added that these attacks “resulted in 20 martyrs and 123 wounded, while hundreds of citizens suffered material losses affecting their homes, workplaces, and vehicles” during the same period.

Zanyar Tahsin, a real estate consultant in Sulaimani, told Rudaw that real estate prices in the province “have dropped heavily, and buyers are scarce.”

He noted that “an apartment that was built a few years ago used to be $136,000, but now it goes for no more than $70,000.”

Tahsin added that “new, fully completed apartment projects usually attract more buyers; however, their prices have also dropped, decreasing by $10,000 to $15,000 from their original price.”

A similar trend has also been recorded in Kirkuk. Karwan Mam Qadir, a real estate agent in the province, said, “We have 200 houses listed and nothing is selling. Nobody is buying houses; the market has stalled and is completely locked.”

He added that “a house gets sold on a very rare occasion, usually cheap ones priced around $20,000,” attributing the slowdown to regional instability.

“During normal times, a house under construction would be sold before it was even finished,” Qadir said, however, now, “buying and selling have completely stopped.”

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