A Memorandum in Damascus
The Ministry of Local Administration and Environment signed a memorandum of understanding on 2 November 2026 to digitize Syria's real estate records, in a ceremony held at a Damascus hotel. The agreement was concluded with Creative Associates International, a contractor working under funding from the US Department of State.
The project carries a total budget of $2 million and is scheduled to run for about six months in its initial phase. Officials framed it as the opening step in a longer program rather than a one-off measure.
Five Governorates, One Data Center
The program is designed to equip five archiving centers and to train the staff of real estate directorates in Damascus, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Hama, and Raqqa. It also provides for establishing a central data center in Damascus to hold the digitized records.
Alongside the equipment, the plan includes hands-on training and technical support so the directorates can operate the electronic archiving systems and later expand them on their own, without relying on continued outside management.
From Remote Work to the Field
Minister Mohammad Anjrani described the signing as the first phase of a planned series of projects, adding that field operations would begin in a subsequent phase carried out by specialized teams.
The contractor's executive director, Leland Crouvent, said the organization had supported the Syrian people since 2013 and that work previously conducted remotely was now shifting to direct operations based in Damascus.
Part of a Wider Push
The real estate initiative follows a similar agreement signed a day earlier, on 1 November 2026, between the Ministry of Industry and Internal Trade and the same contractor, also funded by the US Department of State, to modernize and digitize company registration.
Taken together, the two projects point to a broader effort to formalize record-keeping across property and commercial registries, areas tied to property rights, dispute resolution, and the investment environment that reconstruction will depend on.