Iraq is suffering from a house supply shortage of nearly three million units although it has completed over 7,000 housing projects over the past 20 years, an Iraqi housing official was reported on Wednesday as saying.

Scores of housing projects are currently under construction in various parts of the Arab country, but they only cover around 50 percent of the gap, said Sadiq Al-Fartousi, Housing Director at the Construction and Housing Ministry.

“Iraq is suffering from a severe housing supply gap…we estimate this gap at nearly three million units,” Fartousi told the official Iraqi Alsabah newspaper.

Fartousi said the Ministry is in the process of devising a housing strategy stretching until 2030 with the aim of tackling that shortage.

The strategy focuses on the construction of new residential cities that could supply at least one million houses in the next few years, he said, adding housing shortages have widened because of internal hostilities and a steady population growth.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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