Iraq Awards Two Contracts Valued at $365 Million to Build Homes

Iraq signed two contracts valued at $365 million to build more than 4,000 homes in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Kurdistan-based Kar Engineering & Construction Co. signed a $185 million deal to build 2,016 units in northern Baghdad, the president of the Baghdad investment committee said today. The project, a compound called Ibn Fernas, will be finished within four years, Shaker al-Zamili said.

A second project to construct 2,000 homes costing as much as $180 million was awarded to Iraq-based al-Faheem for General Contracting Company. The compound will be built in western Baghdad and complete within three years, Zamili said.

Iraq is seeking foreign investment to help rebuild an economy and infrastructure damaged by war, sanctions and underinvestment. The country plans to spend $4 billion on housing through 2016 to reduce a shortage of homes, Construction and Housing Minister Mohammad Saheb al-Darraji said May 21.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai on zfattah@bloomberg.net Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad on kalansary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net