Jordan's military makeover

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GRAND PLAN: Hamdan's firm has a project portfolio worth US$2bn in Jordan alone, with another US$1bn planned abroad.

Jordan is hoping that old military barracks may hold the key to meeting surging demand for houses in the country. Sean Cronin meets Mawared chairman Akram Abu Hamdan to hear how the state's two largest cities are set to be transformed.

Jordan is undergoing a real estate boom unlike any of its Middle East developers and it is being led by a real estate company that is similarly unique.

Unlike many of its neighbours, demand for housing in Jordan is being driven by the low-cost sector as home ownership becomes more difficult to achieve for a rapidly expanding population, and surging inflation hits disposable incomes.

State-controlled Mawared is regenerating former military installations across the country into mixed-use real estate projects aimed at alleviating one of the most chronic housing shortages in the Middle East, with demand running as high as 50,000 units per year - while the supply pipeline is currently meeting less than half of that.

The developer has been given responsibility to fill that shortfall by relocating Jordan's military facilities and redeveloping the vacated sites into mixed-use projects, aimed at delivering the volume of new residential units needed in a country where the population has swelled due to an influx of foreign nationals across its borders, most significantly from Iraq and Palestine.

"In Jordan, the military has always had a role in development, so when the state was young in the 1920s and 30s, if the government couldn't reach rural areas, it used the military to build schools, roads and hospitals," says Hamdan.

"So the military in Jordan has had a long history of development as well as defence."

Hamdan has steered the growth of the company since 2001, working closely with Jordan's Ruler HRH King Abdullah II to deliver an affordable urban regeneration strategy, at a time when foreign investment into the country's real estate sector has been slow to arrive.

Mawared's efforts to redevelop the former military sites was given a boost by King Abdullah II this year, who has made the provision of low-cost housing a top priority for the government.

He launched the 'National Housing Initiative,' in February which aims to build some 120,000 properties for low and limited-income Jordanians.

The initiative will see the government give away vast land parcels and is aimed at kick-starting a low-cost housing construction programme.

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