Algeria: 130,000 housing units unoccupied and whose owners don’t need them

The national housing real-estate agency has revealed that 130,000 housing units across the national territory are unduly occupied by “residents” who don’t have ownership of these apartments after illicit deals as part of the so-called “buying of the key” or other illegal practices contrary to the laws and regulations in force.

This untoward situation has cost the public Treasury a financial loss estimated 421 billion dinars a year, the equivalent of the monthly  rents not paid by these undue dwelling occupiers to the national housing real-estate agency.

The housing Ministerial department  has recently undertaken a thorough investigation into this unlawful practices recorded in the national housing sector by targeting half a million sites as part of the cleansing of the files of 8.5 million housing units nationwide.

Echorouk sources indicated that there were 4,000 housing units placed in the past record, including about 3,000 of them entirely unoccupied, while 116 units are now occupied by strangers, and 100 other housing units have been sold under the illegal “purchase of the key formula”, according to preliminary findings.