Irtidad

First Eid Mubarak to all.

Now to the subject of this post, I want to talk about Irtidad issues, and I don't mean apostasy.

I am talking about Irtidad in the real estate sense of the word. Standard villa plots in Kuwait are measured in meters squared, they vary between 1,000 meters squared to the paltry 250 meters squared. The prices range according to how close you are to Kuwait city. The prices can be over one million KD to 150 thousand KD but you would probably be close to the Iraqi or Saudi border for that low price. In addition to your proximity to Kuwait City, prices also vary according to how many sides of your land plot have access to the street. Corner villas with two sides or more sides to the street are valued more than single street access villas. In addition to how much street sides you have, the issue of Irtidad comes in. The Government expects you not to touch 2 meters from the sidewalk to your villa, they will take care of the sidewalk and provide paving and underground utilities there. Beyond those 2 meters, you are free to do what you want. That distance beyond those 2 meters is your Irtidad or free space to use in any way you want. You are allowed to put barriers in the form of a low wall not exceeding 1 meter or vegetation that can be any height you want.

Villa owners use this Irtidad to plant lush gardens with fountains, slides and swings for the kids, ample parking space, poultry and sheep, or semi permanent tents for the boys to gather in.
The more Irtidad a plot is allowed, the higher the prices.

Some unfortunates in Qortoba have no Irtidad, their villas are packed like sardines in a can, except for a few lucky corner houses.

Qortoba Villas

Some lucky souls have massive Irtidad nearly equivalent to their Villa size.


Massive Irtidad


Others, such as myself have a modest Irtidad of 6 meters or a little more.


Note: This is not my house.


Now on a personal note, my neighbour used his 6 meter Irtidad to plant a lovely garden with all sorts of exotic plants, a mini waterfall and a beautiful green lawn. He was so ambitious in his landscaping venture, he even annexed the 2 meter pavement that is reserved for the goverment. The result wa a lovely garden all the way to the kerbstone. I, just paved my Irtidad for myself and my Diwaniyah guests and did not plant anything. The result now is that my neighbour has nowhere to park his cars and his frequent guests' cars, so they feel that they are entitled to park in my sparse paved Irtidad instead because they do not want to drive all over the green lush lawn.

I ended up placing six vertical bricks on my sidewalk to send a message telling them that this is is not a public parking space. They now got the message and now park in the street opposite their garden.

Moral of the story: If you have a nice Irtidad, think of where you will park your cars before planning on building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon outside your villa.