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Booming Luxurious Kabul - Asia-Pacific - News - OnIslam.net
OnIslam & Newspapers Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:30
Luxurious state-of-the-art properties were popping up in the war ravaged Afghan capital.
CAIRO – Against all odds, luxurious state-of-the-art properties are popping up in the war ravaged Afghan capital, one of the world’s poorest, as an unlikely fruit of billions of dollars spent by the West during the past 10 years of Afghan war.
"Afghan people are hard workers and a lot of them have done well," Syed Fazl Khelwati, assistant sales manager of Alokozay Group, who is building a twin 26-storey towers in Kabul, told the Sunday Telegraph on May 29.
Khelwati said his apartments were targeted at emigrants wanting to return and businessmen who had made fortunes from the West.
“They like to save money and like to invest in land and property.”
Since the US toppled the ruling Taliban and installed the West-backed government of Hamid Karzai, Washington alone has spent £36 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.
However, the massive expenditure has almost failed to change the bitter reality for millions in the war-torn country, with the majority of Afghans earn around £1 a day.
Pumping western billions freely into poor Kabul, a lucky few Afghans, who worked for the West in reconstruction which failed to stop waste of corruption, made a fortune from Kabul's war economy.
Other fortunate Afghans grow to riches with jobs at embassies or western companies where junior staff can earn £1,000 a month upwards.
As a result, brochures offering dream properties and ornate towers with a view on palm trees became a familiar view in Kabul.
The luxurious apartments in these towers were estimated by property developers at £130,000, a price higher than what Habibullah Wajdi, 39, would have paid in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he has recently finished a PhD.
"All Afghans worry about security, but with that there's also resilience, we just have to live with it," Wajdi said.
"With worry, there's always hope, especially in Kabul."
Even with a salary of £2,300 a month, as a senior local staff member at a prestigious international body, the £114,000 apartment in an incomplete 12-storey block, was hard for Wajdi.
"The demand is so huge, I don't know how people are supporting it," he said.
"I think the only people who can afford these are people doing business with the West."
Security Threat
Brochures offering dream properties & ornate towers with a view on palm trees became a familiar view in Kabul.With a soaring demand, Alokozay is building new Alokozay Centre which will hold 600 apartments and 300 shops, undaunted by earthquakes or suicide bombings.
"Afghans in Kabul don't pay attention to these things,” Khelwati told the Sunday Telegraph.
“They are familiar with these kinds of situations. Right now it's like taking candy from a baby.”
Makers of the booming industry, some experts say, were paying little attention to the future fears of a change in market value.
"Afghans don't think about the future anymore," Torialai Bahadery, an estate agent in Kabul, said laughingly.
Bahadery confirmed that the foreigners, believing their existence in Kabul is temporary, avoided the properties while Afghans were attracted by profit and prestige.
"If you talk to a guy who is building a multiple-storey building and ask him how he is going to rent it, or how long it will take to get your money back, he will say 'I don't know, I just like it!'
As the NATO has committed to keep its troops in Afghanistan until at least 2014, a looming suspension for the West-funneled money was predicted to hugely affect the industry.
"If the Americans and Nato are here, there will be no change in the situation,” Khelwati predicted.
“If they go, that's a different story."
Another worrying prospect was threatening the poor capital, where no one asks about the source of money, whether from the West or from the opium industry.
"In Afghanistan we have developed the wrong understanding about capitalism, said Wahid Mujda, a former Taliban official and now a researcher with the Kabul Centre for Strategic Studies.
“Here we think the open market means you can do anything you like.
Drugs money has driven Kabul's capitalist free-for all, he added.
"There are only two types of money in Kabul. The money that comes from the foreigners and the money that comes from opium,” he said.
“In Afghanistan no one is going to ask which side yours comes from."
OnIslam & Newspapers Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:30
Luxurious state-of-the-art properties were popping up in the war ravaged Afghan capital. CAIRO – Against all odds, luxurious state-of-the-art properties are popping up in the war ravaged Afghan capital, one of the world’s poorest, as an unlikely fruit of billions of dollars spent by the West during the past 10 years of Afghan war.
"Afghan people are hard workers and a lot of them have done well," Syed Fazl Khelwati, assistant sales manager of Alokozay Group, who is building a twin 26-storey towers in Kabul, told the Sunday Telegraph on May 29.
Khelwati said his apartments were targeted at emigrants wanting to return and businessmen who had made fortunes from the West.
“They like to save money and like to invest in land and property.”
Since the US toppled the ruling Taliban and installed the West-backed government of Hamid Karzai, Washington alone has spent £36 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.
However, the massive expenditure has almost failed to change the bitter reality for millions in the war-torn country, with the majority of Afghans earn around £1 a day.
Pumping western billions freely into poor Kabul, a lucky few Afghans, who worked for the West in reconstruction which failed to stop waste of corruption, made a fortune from Kabul's war economy.
Other fortunate Afghans grow to riches with jobs at embassies or western companies where junior staff can earn £1,000 a month upwards.
As a result, brochures offering dream properties and ornate towers with a view on palm trees became a familiar view in Kabul.
The luxurious apartments in these towers were estimated by property developers at £130,000, a price higher than what Habibullah Wajdi, 39, would have paid in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he has recently finished a PhD.
"All Afghans worry about security, but with that there's also resilience, we just have to live with it," Wajdi said.
"With worry, there's always hope, especially in Kabul."
Even with a salary of £2,300 a month, as a senior local staff member at a prestigious international body, the £114,000 apartment in an incomplete 12-storey block, was hard for Wajdi.
"The demand is so huge, I don't know how people are supporting it," he said.
"I think the only people who can afford these are people doing business with the West."
Security Threat
Brochures offering dream properties & ornate towers with a view on palm trees became a familiar view in Kabul.With a soaring demand, Alokozay is building new Alokozay Centre which will hold 600 apartments and 300 shops, undaunted by earthquakes or suicide bombings. "Afghans in Kabul don't pay attention to these things,” Khelwati told the Sunday Telegraph.
“They are familiar with these kinds of situations. Right now it's like taking candy from a baby.”
Makers of the booming industry, some experts say, were paying little attention to the future fears of a change in market value.
"Afghans don't think about the future anymore," Torialai Bahadery, an estate agent in Kabul, said laughingly.
Bahadery confirmed that the foreigners, believing their existence in Kabul is temporary, avoided the properties while Afghans were attracted by profit and prestige.
"If you talk to a guy who is building a multiple-storey building and ask him how he is going to rent it, or how long it will take to get your money back, he will say 'I don't know, I just like it!'
As the NATO has committed to keep its troops in Afghanistan until at least 2014, a looming suspension for the West-funneled money was predicted to hugely affect the industry.
"If the Americans and Nato are here, there will be no change in the situation,” Khelwati predicted.
“If they go, that's a different story."
Another worrying prospect was threatening the poor capital, where no one asks about the source of money, whether from the West or from the opium industry.
"In Afghanistan we have developed the wrong understanding about capitalism, said Wahid Mujda, a former Taliban official and now a researcher with the Kabul Centre for Strategic Studies.
“Here we think the open market means you can do anything you like.
Drugs money has driven Kabul's capitalist free-for all, he added.
"There are only two types of money in Kabul. The money that comes from the foreigners and the money that comes from opium,” he said.
“In Afghanistan no one is going to ask which side yours comes from."
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