In Damascus, two images from different worlds coexist. On billboards, signs for modern residential complexes and luxury apartments market a new life, with promises of prosperity and lucrative investment. Just a few meters away, entirely destroyed neighborhoods and rubble-filled buildings stretch out, untouched by reconstruction projects and basic services, their owners trying to repair what they can.

Prices for promised apartments in complexes like 'Yaafour 963' or 'Marota City', which include what is popularly known as Mazzeh Orchards and parts of Kafr Sousa, start at $300,000 — in a country where the monthly salary of a government employee does not exceed $150. Meanwhile, a conflict is escalating over rights and property deeds between contractors holding real estate development contracts, some dating back to the former regime era such as 'Decree 66', and the original homeowners whose properties were forcibly seized to displace them and bring about demographic change in areas that were 'cradles of the revolution'.

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