Amman, Jordan/Ramallah, Palestine - For the past three years, Jordan's capital has been experiencing a huge building boom, much of it a result of the huge influx of Iraqis and the decision of the Jordanian government to allow foreign ownership of properties. Iraqis and Palestinians are now the highest two groups buying lands, apartments and housing complexes. The result is that for price reasons people wanting to buy land are being forced to go farther and farther from the city.
A decision to allow high rise buildings has brought investments, especially Arab investment which after 9/11 and the oil boom have lots of money and no where to spend it. But with high rise buildings there is complaints from local residents worried that the sky line will be messed up, that the buildings are not planned well, that there is lack of supervision (one high rise in the building process collapsed killing an imported Egyptian worker) and that there are no plans to take care of the new traffic and sewage that the new highrise buildings will cause. A new mayor in Amman, is now trying to limit high rise buildings to 20 floors and is trying to reassess the policy without stopping it.
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