Dubat District (Officers) in Ghazaliyah (Baghdad City)

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  obaidey (guest)

  The plots of all these houses are exactly the same size, being 320 square metres. (16m wide and 20m deep). The area is called AL-GHAZALIYAH. Original owners of these plots are all Army officers, who mainly built their houses themselves. by 1985, over 50% of the plots were built and inhabited. By 1990, only 3% of lands remained unbuilt. Originally, and until early 1980, all the area was a mere farmland surrounding the village of Al-Ghazaliya, hence the name. The land was then purchased by Ministry of defense, that sold it to Armed Forces officers at a nominal price of 1 dinar per metre. At the time, the value of the Iraqi dinar was a respectable 3.1 US Dollars, so each plot cost the officer a mere $1000 of 1980 USD or, roughly, a 2 month's salary worth at the time). The ministry of defence also gave away 8000 Dinars to all those officers to help with the house build ($26000 at the time). The Iraqi government was quite generous in early 1980s, with the vast amounts of forein currency reserves and the wishful thinkink that the war with Iran was about to be concluded "soon". All officers were also given new cars at a heavily subsidised price. At first, a Canadian "manual gearbox" Chevrolet Malibu was given to the those officers serving in the war frontline. However, a much better quality Toyota Crown Super Saloon was then given to the officers serving in safer areas at the back! To build a house in Ghazaliya Officers district, it would typically cost an average of 20000-60000 Iraqi Dinars, in first half of 1980s, becoming gradually dearer after 1985, when Iraqi currency started to progressively inflate at an initial annual rate of about 50%, accelerating further after Kuwait invasion to 100%-300% annually then stabilising around 1998, probably as a result of "Oil for Food Program". The Dinar had been amazingly stable since, averaging around 1200-1600 Dinars for the USD. If you need any further information, please contact my youtube account, obaidey

  14 years ago | reply | hide comment