Independent: Boom time in Baghdad Property Prices Soar

As the price of housing collapses in the rest of the world, it is soaring in Baghdad. “Property is the fastest way to make money here,” says Mohammed al-Hadithi, who runs a real estate office in the wealthy Yarmouk district of west Baghdad. "Over the past two years there has been a big rise in the market because the security situation is calmer." House prices have risen by 50 per cent in many parts of central Baghdad during the past year, and rents have almost doubled. Mr Hadithi says that this is explained primarily by the end of the war.