Assessment Report I NRC
Part 1: Housing, land and property rights in
IDPs’ area of origin
A large majority of respondents (82 per cent) reported owning their primary
residence (i.e. the residence they lived in) in their area of origin before
displacement and the vast majority of those (87 per cent) reported that
they had possessed a tabou or court decision documenting ownership
of their primary residence. This finding is largely reflective of the situation
across the country pre-2011 and appears to be in line with official figures
from the Syria 2004 Population and Housing Census which reported 87
per cent of houses being owned in Aleppo and 90 per cent of houses being
owned in Idleb.29 It was reported in 52 per cent of cases where a tabou
had been issued, and in 58 per cent of cases where a court decision had
been issued, that, even if the document was in poor condition, it was either
with the IDP or existed in hard copy somewhere else (and was, therefore,
potentially accessible). This highlights the importance of key messaging
among the IDP community on the importance of recovering and protecting
their HLP documentation wherever possible.
29 OCHA ROSC Syrian Population 2004 Census Data, accessed 02 February 2017 at: https://
data.humdata.org/dataset/syrian-arab-republic-other-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
NRC Assessment Report I 15