Parliamentary Finance Committee hosts Al-Alaq: We reject the mechanism of selling real estate through banks
Parliamentary Finance Committee hosts Al-Alaq: We reject the mechanism of selling real estate through banks
2025-01-23 03:38
Shafaq News/ Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Mahasen Hamdoun, announced on Thursday that she will host the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Mohsen Al-Alaq, to discuss the decision to buy and sell real estate through banks.
Hamdoun told Shafak News Agency that the committee will host the governor of the Central Bank next week to review the reasons behind the recent decision regarding considering the process of buying and selling real estate to be done through banks.
Hamdoun explained that the committee rejects this decision, noting that setting 100 million dinars as the value for selling real estate is not appropriate and does not meet the requirements, warning that this may contribute to money laundering operations.
Hamdoun added that the Central Bank must cancel the new mechanism for buying and selling real estate, and that the appropriate price for selling through the banking window should be set at 500 million dinars, as was previously the case.
The Central Bank of Iraq issued a new decision to reduce the minimum value of real estate sales, as the new value was set at 100 million Iraqi dinars, after it was 500 million dinars.
According to the new instructions, according to an official letter addressed to the Real Estate Registration Department (on January 15), which Shafak News Agency has reviewed, the sale of these properties will be done through licensed Iraqi banks only, and that this procedure comes within the due diligence controls for combating money laundering and terrorist financing specific to the Real Estate Registration Departments.
The Deputy Director General for Combating Money Laundering at the Central Bank of Iraq, Hussein Ali, told Shafak News Agency that these measures aim to accelerate investigations related to money laundering, with the Real Estate Registration Department supervising the monitoring of suspicious transactions and documenting any money laundering cases to facilitate the follow-up of the relevant authorities.
Earlier, the Deputy Chairman of the Investment Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Hussein Al-Saabari, warned that the laws issued by the Central Bank and Iraqi ministries are characterized by confusion, which may lead to a decline in the investment market in Iraq.
He added to Shafaq News Agency that laws such as the real estate registration tax on the sale and purchase of homes are inappropriate, and that the Iraqi banking sector is suffering from deterioration and is unable to meet investment needs.
Al-Saabri also considered the Central Bank’s decision regarding combating money laundering ineffective, and that it does not address the problem of rising housing unit prices in the country.
shafaq.com
