Background and objective:

The purpose of this project is to assess the feasibility of local interventions to address supply contraints in the Iraq housing sector.  Most notable among these issues are whether there are suitable municipalities that have control over available lands, whether financial resources and mechanisms exist to provide the necessary infrastructural services and whether there are regulatory and policy constraints to the creation of a housing finance industry.

Activities:
The main activities included:

• Identification of the most appropriate pilot cities/municipalities for the intervention (possibly from the pool of cities studied in UN HABITAT’s State of Iraqi Cities Report and Housing Market Study).
• Identification of available and developable land for housing construction.
• Identification of the most appropriate municipalities for this intervention.
• Identification of the most appropriate players in the real estate development industry, through which the capacity of a market-based housing construction industry can be enhanced
• Identification of specific policy/regulatory impediments linked to the Iraq Housing Fund

Results:
The results achieved were:

• Draft interim report completed in December 2007.
• Feasibility study to address local constraints to housing supply in Erbil, Hilla and Najaf completed. 
• Project under development to support land management; planning and private sector-led development capacity building, municipal process re-engineering with fund contribution from the local authorities.
• Assessment of the Iraq housing finance structure and mechanism and recommendations for development completed