KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In a town that has been through it all and is clawing its way back, a man named Omidullah is looking to hit paydirt.
The Kabul real estate agent is selling a nine-bedroom, nine-bath, white-and-gold villa in the Afghan capital. On the roof’s gable, glittering Arabic script tempts buyers and brokers with the word “mashallah” — “God has willed it.”
The villa is listed at $450,000, a startling number in a country where more than half of the population relies on humanitarian aid to survive, most Afghans don’t have bank accounts, and mortgages are rare. Yet the offers are coming in.
“It’s a myth that Afghans don’t have money,” Omidullah said. “We have very big businessmen who have big businesses abroad. There are houses here worth millions of dollars.”
In Kabul, a curious thing is happening to fuel the high-end real estate market. Peace, it seems, is driving up property prices.
Yes, how true. Like how my wife here in Indiana right now has to sit at home and cook and clean due to being unable to work, but at least while she’s at home, she doesn’t have to cover herself from head to to so that no man may look at her, am I right?