Thanks to peace, two unexpected words are echoing across Afghanistan's capital: Luxury housing
Peace is driving up property prices in Kabul and fueling the luxury market
KABUL, Afghanistan — In a town that has been through it all and is clawing its way back, a man named Omidullah is looking to hit paydirt.
The Kabul real estate agent is selling a nine-bedroom, nine-bath, white-and-gold villa in the Afghan capital. On the roof's gable, glittering Arabic script tempts buyers and brokers with the word “mashallah” — «God has willed it.”
The villa is listed at $450,000, a startling number in a country where more than half of the population relies on humanitarian aid to survive, most Afghans don’t have bank accounts, and mortgages are rare. Yet the offers are coming in.
“It’s a myth that Afghans don’t have money,” Omidullah said. “We have very big businessmen who have big businesses abroad. There are houses here worth millions of dollars.”
In Kabul, a curious thing is happening to fuel the high-end real estate market. Peace, it seems, is driving up property prices.
People who spent years living and working abroad are returning home, keen to take advantage of the country’s much-improved security and stability after decades of war, destruction and infrastructure decay. They include Afghans escaping deportation campaigns in Iran and Pakistan who are taking their cash with them.
Mortgages are rare because banks don’t have the deposits to facilitate lending. Afghans buy in cash or use the “geerawi option” — when someone provides a fixed sum to a landlord in return for living on his property and staying there until the landlord returns the money.
People were afraid to invest in Kabul before the Taliban takeover, according to another real estate agent, Ghulam Mohammed Haqdoost. But the country’s rulers have created better
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