A place to live for all

According to the Jordan Housing Developers Association, demand for residential units in Amman is projected to outweigh supply as demand continues to grow, especially during the peak summer months when Jordanian expatriates return to the country to spend their summer vacation.

The same source says developers built about 4,000 housing units during the first four months of this year and are expected to build not less than 30,000 by the end of it.

That still falls short of the 40,000 to 45,000 residential units the association claims is needed by the domestic market every year, a gap it attributes to barriers imposed by regulators, particularly the Greater Amman Municipality.

Demand for housing may very well have gone up, due not only to the natural population growth but also to the influx of millions of Syrians and Iraqis to the country over the past few years.

This dramatic and unnatural increase in the population of the country cannot be guaranteed to continue forever. As such, the association’s projections need to be taken conservatively.

What happens when many Syrians and Iraqis return to their countries, once normalcy returns there, which is bound to happen at some point in time?

The demand for apartments could drop dramatically in case of such development, a possibility housing companies need to seriously consider.

The association also expects prices to go up by at least 15 per cent this year, after having gone up by 8 per cent last year.

Such increase will make it impossible for many Jordanians to purchase housing units, which will leave many such units empty.

Data on housing needs has to be carefully and professionally collected, and well-studied projections made before private and public sectors embark on more construction plans.

At the same time, housing units accessible to all brackets of society have to be considered by business-savvy companies.

Above all, prices have to be realistic, dictated by the income of the population, not by the get-rich-fast dream of many construction companies, without, of course, compromising quality and safety.