Digital documentation drive aims to protect Syrian housing and property rights
- Editorial Team SDG10
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Efforts to safeguard housing, land and property rights in Syria are increasingly turning to digital documentation, as local organisations warn that millions of displaced people risk permanent disenfranchisement without proof of ownership. The shift, described as a growing “digital archiving” movement in 2025 and 2026, is framed by advocates as central to reducing inequality and preventing vulnerable households from being excluded from future reconstruction and return.
Before the conflict, an estimated 30 to 40% of Syrian housing was in informal settlements or lacked formal registration, leaving many residents without paperwork even in normal circumstances. The destruction of physical land registries in cities such as Homs and Aleppo, alongside mass displacement, has deepened what local groups describe as a documentation vacuum, with the poorest least able to assert claims.
Informal settlements and the documentation vacuum
Informal housing and unregistered properties were widespread before the war, and the loss of records has made ownership and occupancy harder to verify at scale. Local organisations say this disproportionately affects people in low-income areas who cannot demonstrate tenure to claim compensation, contest a takeover, or return to a former home.
The consequences extend beyond individual households, with documentation gaps feeding disputes between returnees and current occupants. In densely damaged neighbourhoods where habitable space is scarce, the absence of reliable records can intensify local tensions and leave certain groups, including female-headed households, more exposed to eviction or coercion.
How local groups are building digital evidence
In Aleppo, small teams are combining satellite imagery with Geographic Information Systems to map previous property boundaries and create digital dossiers for families from informal areas. The files are built using “social evidence”, including interviews with neighbours, old utility bills and photographs, intended to establish a credible account of who lived where and on what basis.
Tech-focused NGOs are also trialling blockchain-based ledgers as a way to preserve tenure information in a decentralised form. Supporters argue that a distributed record cannot be destroyed in conflict or seized through local control, and can act as a portable identity for a person’s property claim.
Mediation, inequality and what comes next
In Homs, community mediation centres are documenting agreements between returnees and current occupants digitally, with the aim of reducing the risk of disputes escalating into violence. Local organisations say recording settlements in a structured form can help protect the most vulnerable from being pushed out and can support more predictable outcomes when formal systems are absent or contested.
Advocates link the work directly to SDG 10 on reduced inequalities, including Target 10.3 on equal opportunity, and describe documentation as a form of legal identity for people otherwise rendered invisible by informality. They also argue that securing claims helps prevent “disaster capitalism”, where destroyed informal neighbourhoods are taken over by developers without compensation for original low-income inhabitants, while clearer records can support social cohesion by lowering friction between groups competing for limited housing.
Practical implications for reconstruction planning
Digital records created now could shape who is recognised in future urban reconstruction processes, including compensation, restitution, or redevelopment decisions. Local groups say the near-term priority is ensuring evidence is collected at neighbourhood level, where informal tenure was most common, and where displaced residents face the steepest barriers to proving prior residence or ownership.
Key stakeholders cited in this work include the UN Habitat Syria Programme, which is said to increasingly fund local partners for granular mapping, alongside Syrian civil society groups such as the Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity and The Day After, which has published reports on property law reforms and digital documentation in Homs and Aleppo.
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