'Construction work on Erbil's Floria City residential project will resume soon': Official
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Construction work on the Florida City residential project in the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil will resume soon, Dr. Mohammed Shukri, the chair of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Board of Investment, told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday.
Cooperation between the KRG's Board of Investment and Erbil's Directorate of Investment solved Florida City's legal and financial problems. As a result, construction work on the project will be resumed in 60 days, Shukri revealed.
"The work in this project has been submitted to a local company named South Kurdistan Group," he said. "Work in this project has stopped since 2010."
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Work on eight other residential projects in Erbil province was also stopped. However, the 9th cabinet of KRG has worked with the investment board to solve problems with these projects and has, to date, successfully helped resume work on four of those stalled projects.
This latest step by the investment board will succeed if the financial rights of the citizens who purchased residential units in Floria City are protected, Salam Faqe Karim, known as (Haji Salam), told Kurdistan 24.
Salam owns the Kurdistan Region's largest real estate company, also called Haji Salam.
"Previous companies responsible for the construction of Floria City revoked around 700 contracts of people who bought units in the project, and this further complicated the situation in the past," he said.
At present, the real estate market is doing well in the Kurdistan Region, especially in Erbil.
"The Kurdistan Region will soon become an important center for the real estate market and industry," Salam said, adding that he anticipates "investors from all of Iraq will come to invest in Kurdistan Region, because of the region's security and political stability."
"Following the bad economic situation in Turkey and Iran, many Turkish and Iranian companies and factories came to work in Kurdistan Region, seeing the economic development in the region as an opportunity for investment," he added.
Even though a large number of new residential projects are completed in the Kurdistan Region each year, the demand for residential units remains high "because large numbers of people from middle and south of Iraq continue to come to buy and rent properties in the region, seeking a safe haven for their families and a growing economic environment for their businesses."
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Erbil’s construction boom first began after the Saddam Hussein regime was deposed in 2003. However, it was interrupted in 2014 by the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS). Four years later, it began to recover again.
In 2021 the Kurdistan Region entered a new development phase, not only in the construction and real estate sectors but also in the autonomous region's industrial sector. So far, this has included the construction of local iron and cement factories that can provide construction companies with the building materials they need. The Kurdistan Region is also establishing companies for manufacturing and marketing local agriculture products.
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These are all part of the KRG's ambitious program to diversify its sources of revenue and reduce its high dependency on income generated from the sale of oil.
The second Construction Investment and Real Estate Fair was hosted in Erbil last September. Over 150 local and foreign companies participated. Foreign participants came from Iran, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany.
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The Floria City residential project is on Erbil's Koya street, where there are many shopping centers and malls. Once finished, Florida City will have more than 2,000 residential units, including apartments and villas, available for sale or rent.
