Minister of Awqaf, Islamic Affairs and Holy Places Mohammad Al-Khalaileh on Monday unveiled a three-year plan to double the revenue of the Awqaf Properties Development Department, alongside the results of the first comprehensive valuation of the department's real estate holdings, which appraisers put at roughly JD516 million.
اضافة اعلان
Speaking at a press conference attended by Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Sami Smeirat, ministry Secretary-General Ismail Al-Khatib and department Director-General Youssef Al-Qudah, Al-Khalaileh said accredited appraisers carried out the assessment to international standards and covered every endowment property in the Kingdom. The exercise, he added, gives the ministry an accurate database for investment planning and decision-making.
The department oversees about 1,000 endowment plots covering 6,830 dunams, 65 percent of them in Amman. Al-Khalaileh said around 72 percent of that land has been leased or otherwise put to use. The remainder lies outside zoned areas, in uninhabited locations or on land whose zoning does not suit commercial investment. Occupancy of the department's existing buildings stands at 97.5 percent.
Those plots represent only about 9 percent of all endowment land in Jordan. The rest consists of cemeteries, mosques, family endowments and similar holdings that cannot be developed commercially.
Movable and immovable endowment assets generated a combined return of roughly JD9.3 million in 2025, according to the minister.
Expansion plan
Al-Khalaileh outlined a strategy that rests on broader investment of endowment funds, partnerships with the public and private sectors, financing from Islamic finance institutions for new projects, and an expanded cash endowment programme to buy commercially viable land and buildings.
The department has signed contracts for new projects worth an estimated JD24 million, has a further JD9 million of projects under construction, and holds preliminary agreements for developments valued at up to JD20 million. Using its own resources, it has completed 11 projects across several governorates at a cost of JD4.5 million, including a warehouse complex in Al-Mazar Al-Janoubi (JD296,000) and a multi-purpose hall in the Northern Badia (JD410,000).
Feasibility studies are under way for two commercial projects in Mafraq and Balqa.
The Cash Endowment Investment Directorate, set up at the start of 2021 with JD1 million in net assets, had grown to about JD39 million by the end of 2025. It provided roughly JD9.338 million in financing during 2025 and holds an Amman Stock Exchange portfolio of about 3 million shares valued at close to JD14 million.
Since its establishment in 2003, the department has invested about JD105 million in 81 endowment projects nationwide [needs verification: other outlets reporting the same press conference cite 76 projects], including commercial complexes, schools, hospitals, universities, factories and fuel stations. Al-Khalaileh said those projects have created approximately 23,000 jobs.
On public-private partnerships, the minister explained that the department uses a build-operate-transfer model under which investors develop and run projects on endowment land for up to 30 years, paying annual rent, with the assets reverting fully to the endowment when the term ends.
Arrears and enforcement
Al-Khalaileh confirmed the department has filed about 450 lawsuits against tenants in arrears on rent totalling JD11 million and has referred 2,177 tenants to the Public Funds Collection Department.
He urged citizens to establish cash and property endowments for the benefit of the poor, the sick and other charitable causes, and said the department publishes its financial statements, audited by an external firm, in its annual report and on its website.
Digital services
The department has launched the first phase of its electronic services, part of a wider effort to digitise its procedures for clients and investors.
Smeirat said the launch supports the government's commitment to digitise all eligible public services by the end of 2026, which would bring the total number of completed digital government services to about 2,400.
The rollout began with six services, will be followed by six more, and is due to conclude with a final six by year-end, for a total of 18. The first tranche covers investing in endowment property, adding or removing a partner from an investment contract, terminating or assigning an investment contract, paying outstanding property dues in instalments, and halting legal proceedings.
Services still to come include renting a property or plot, adding or removing a partner from a lease, terminating a lease and handing back the property, settling outstanding rent, assigning a lease, changing a property's designated use, requesting maintenance, and withdrawing public funds claims.
Source: Al-Ghad, citing the Jordan News Agency (Petra).
