Iraq’s state-owned Real Estate Bank has challenged the legal basis of a proposed residential development on its land in Baghdad, saying the project being advertised to buyers does not match the investment approval granted for the site.
In a clarification issued late Saturday, the bank said the land identified for the Zayouna Gate project remains part of its public assets. No public official has authority to surrender or transfer those assets outside the legal process, it said, because doing so could diminish state property and the bank’s capital.
The bank’s account draws a sharp distinction between the permit and the project now being marketed. It said Wahat Al-Rawan, a private company, received an investment licence in 2022 for a three-storey commercial development. That approval did not authorise a residential complex in which units could be sold to individual purchasers. Under the original arrangement described by the bank, the completed structures were eventually to pass to the bank.
The institution said the site remains vacant and that it has neither signed an implementation contract nor delivered possession of the land. Any excavation or construction undertaken without authority would amount to an encroachment on state property, according to the statement.
Those assertions have not yet been tested in a final judgment. The bank said it has filed an appeal in the interest of the law and a separate court action, while alleged legal and administrative irregularities are also being examined by Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity. The proceedings remain pending.
The dispute creates immediate risk for anyone asked to reserve or purchase units. Marketing materials cannot themselves establish that a developer owns the land, holds possession or has permission to sell residential interests. The bank’s intervention puts those matters squarely in issue before construction has begun.
The private companies connected with the proposed development had not published a detailed response to the bank’s latest account. Until the courts and integrity authorities complete their work, the statement leaves the advertised project without an uncontested legal route to the land.
Official Iraqi News Agency report of the bank’s statement
