Algeria: “About 900,000 timeworn flats dating back to colonial era prone to tumble down”

The chairman of the national real-estate federation, Abdelkrim Aouidat, has warned that about 9 hundred thousand flats dating back to the French colonial era scattered across the national territory are in a shockingly bad state and are liable to collapse at any time given their advanced dilapidation.

In a statement on Sunday to Echorouk, Mr Aouidat also pointed to the hovering disaster which could befall the countless residents of these precarious apartments who risk their lives.

Their lives are hanging on a string, he explained.

These housing units built during the colonial era are in a shoddy and frail state and have witnessed no proper renovation works by the relevant authorities who have been pottering about here and there, he asserted.

Given this grim situation, Mr Abdelhakim Aouidat affirmed that the local authorities should take urgent steps to address this vexed issue notably by granting these hapless citizens social or promotional housing according to their respective monthly-income and eligibility in order to head off a tragedy in case of the sudden collapse of these old buildings located mostly in the big urban centers like the capital Algiers, the cities of Oran, Annaba and Constantine and elsewhere in the country.

He further called for the financial involvement of the various banking institutions in helping low and average income earners acquire brand new and decent accommodation through much affordable hire-purchase formulas coupled with very low interest rates as part of the overall rejuvenation of the flagging housing sector in Algeria.