If Afghans Are Worried That The War May Escalate After The U.S. Withdrawal, Why Is There A Property Boom In Kabul?

Aria City Compound development in Kabul. Wikimapia

Kabul Property Boom Confounds Fears About Afghanistan's Security -- The Guardian

Afghan capital's skyline transformed by luxury high-rise buildings as new rich prepare to weather Nato's withdrawal.

Two giant concrete pomegranates loom over downtown Kabul, with bright red, 15ft-tall seeds bursting from their sides and lit at night with dancing pink lights.

The sculptures adorn the top of the orange, silver and blue "Pomegranate Towers" apartment block, one of the more garishly ostentatious buildings thrown up by Kabul's nouveau riche but also an unlikely token of hope in city threatened by a tenacious insurgency as foreign troops leave.

"I get a lot more confidence from looking at these awful buildings. It kills me as an architect, but from an economic point of view it seems to be quite a vote of confidence," said Jolyon Leslie, a South African with several decades experience of restoration and urban planning in Afghanistan. "Everyone is talking about the tide going out economically, but everyone is still investing in these fancy buildings … they are making a long-term bet the city will stay stable enough to earn it back."

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My Comment: These Afghan investors remind me of a story that I read over a year ago on how speculators were betting that Syria's civil war would end and that property values would then boom in Damascus and Aleppo. Unfortunately for these speculators .... the only "boom" that they are experiencing is coming from bombs exploding. My prediction is the same for Afghanistan .... even though many want the war to end .... many do not.