Real Estate Design for new city in Iraq approved By Nadim Kawach January 29, 2025, 10:37 AM Iraqi News Agency Benkin Rikani, Iraq's construction minister, left, approves the design of the new residential project of Ali Al-Wardi City Developed by Egypt’s Ora 25km from Baghdad Will house 700,000 people The design for a new city in Iraq to be built by an Egyptian developer that will house 700,000 people has been approved by the country’s ministry of construction and housing. Ora Developers, owned by the Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris, was awarded the contract to build Ali Al-Wardi City a year ago. The company will start working on the project shortly, after construction and housing minister Benkin Rikani approved its designs on Monday, the ministry said. The city, named after the late Iraqi sociologist Ali Al-Wardi, will consist of 120,000 houses and is expected to house more than 700,000 people on a site 25km southeast of Baghdad and 74km from Baghdad Airport. “Ali Al-Wardi City is the largest residential project within a government programme to build new cities to resolve the housing problem,” the statement said. The statement did not provide details of the contract, but officials said in 2024 that Ali Al-Wardi and four other new city projects endorsed by the cabinet last year would be awarded on an “investment basis”, which means developers would build the city and sell the units. Baghdad, which is suffering from large budget deficits, opted for investment contracts after a financial dispute erupted with the South Korean Hanwha Company over the construction of the Bismaya City residential project in Iraq. In 2023 Hanwha stopped working on the project, near Baghdad, claiming the government defaulted on payment, triggering several rounds of negotiations. Eagle Hills launches $1.5bn golf resort in Baghdad Iraq and UK sign $15bn deal to strengthen trade ties Neighbours to supply Iraq with 3GW of electricity this summer Hanwha, which has built around 30,000 of the project’s 100,000 houses, said in late 2024 that it would resume work, after reaching financial agreement with the government. The construction and housing ministry said in early 2024 that it intends to invite developers and investors for the construction of five new residential cities, to be located in Baghdad, the southern provinces of Basra and Dhi Qar, Maysan in East Iraq and the Western Alanbar, Iraq’s largest governorate. Ali Al-Sanafi, president of the Iraqi Contractors’ Federation, said last year that Iraq needed to build at least 3 million houses to narrow a supply gap caused by the absence of major housing projects over several years, rapid population growth and the lack of vertical building projects. Al-Iqtisad News said Ali Al-Wardi City would have an area of around 61 square kilometres and would include large green areas, power and water facilities, roads, schools, hospitals and shopping centres.