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Libya
Housing
Housing was one of the major concerns of the revolutionary government
from the beginning, and the provision of adequate housing for
all Libyans by the 1980s has remained a top priority. The former
regime had undertaken to build 100,000 units to relieve a critical
housing shortage, but this project had proved an expensive fiasco
and was abandoned after 1969. A survey at the time of the revolution
found that 150,000 families lacked decent shelter, the actual
housing shortfall being placed at upward of 180,000 dwellings.
Both the public and private sectors were involved in housing
construction during the 1970s. Private investment and contracting
accounted for a large portion of all construction until new property
ownership laws went into effect in 1978 that limited each family
to only one dwelling. Despite the decline of privately financed
undertakings, the housing sector constituted one of the most notable
of the revolution's achievements. By the late 1970s, the hovels
and tenements surrounding Benghazi and Tripoli had begun to give
way to modern apartment blocks with electricity and running water
that stretched ever farther into what had once been groves and
fields. These high-rise apartments became characteristic of the
skylines of contemporary Benghazi, Tripoli, and other urban areas.
Between 1970 and 1986, the government invested some LD2.8 million
(for value of the Libyan dinar (LD--see Glossary) in housing,
which made possible the construction of 277,500 housing units,
according to official sources. To reach these targets, the regime
drew not only upon Libyan resources but also enlisted firms from
France, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Spain,
Italy, Turkey, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and Cuba.
Since 1984, budget allocations for housing have fallen in keeping
with a general decline in government spending. Many housing contracts
have been suspended or canceled as a result, causing financial
difficulties for foreign firms. A shortfall in new construction
also raised the prospect of overcrowding and the creation of new
shantytowns as the country's burgeoning population threatened
to overwhelm the supply of housing.
Data as of 1987
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