The surge in rent underscores a housing problem that has plagued #Gaza for years: There simply is not enough. Even before the recent war — which the United Nations says destroyed or severely damaged 17,000 houses — the housing market in Gaza was squeezed by Israeli restrictions on imports of construction material, land scarcity and rapid population growth. The U.N. expects Gaza’s population to swell by nearly one quarter by 2020, from around 1.7 million today to 2.1 million. “Before the war, we needed at least 70,000 additional housing units,” said Omar Shaban, a prominent Gaza economist. “Now with thousands of more houses destroyed in the war, the crisis has deepened. And with that crisis, the rent has shot up.”
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:06:21 +0000