Maintenance problems, fires sped up Sawaber’s evacuation
KUWAIT: The Cabinet ordered during a regular session on January 4, 2015 to evacuate the 35-year-old Sawaber Residential Complex by March 31, 2016. Owners were offered either to receive the price of their apartments in cash, or move to other housing units in West Sulaibikhat.
Tenants’ problems
Controversy about the complex started over ten years ago when the Pubic Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) stopped its maintenance and repair contracts, leaving the owners confused about the details of the services they got such as the location of air conditioning units, water tanks and power fittings. Tenants’ problems further intensified when they failed to conduct maintenance operations themselves, which created overload on power grids and led to several disastrous fire that have claimed some lives and caused serious injuries.
Later on, the expropriation department at PAHW forced owners to evict their units in return for up to KD 230,000 in cash for each owner. Some owners refused that amount on grounds that it would not be enough to purchase a decent house in any other area. Those who rejected this offer were instead offered alternative 400 square meter apartments in the West Sulaibikhat project.
The expropriation department managed to evict 458 apartments up till last January while the owners of 8 apartments rejected the offered prices as well as the alternative units in Sulaibikhat. Last week, the Finance Ministry’s state properties department informed the remaining tenants that public services, including electricity and water, will be cut from the building after March 31st. Al-Qabas daily reported meanwhile that some tenants plan to hire a team of lawyers and pursue legal action if the government forces them out of what they described as their private properties.
Huge fire
Built in 1981 with designs by famed architect and urban planner Arthur Erickson, the Sawaber Complex comprises 33 buildings, 66 elevators and 528 residential apartments of slightly different sizes and designs that used to be inhabited by around 3,000 people. The complex also included a kindergarten, a polyclinic, a co-op branch and two mosques.
Expropriating the complex and purchasing its units was first considered in 2010 when a huge fire broke out and MPs and Municipal Council members started discussing proposals to solve the problem.
The fate of the Sawaber Complex remains unknown following its evacuation, although it is widely believed that it is going to be demolished to make room for commercial-based projects to be built in its place. Sawaber is located in one of the best areas of Kuwait, within blocks of the Kuwait Stock Exchange, Central Bank, all major banks, several high rise office towers and other important government buildings. Needless to say, real estate investors around Kuwait are closely monitoring the situation and waiting to see what unfolds regarding that strategic location in downtown Kuwait City.