Baghdad newlyweds move in with in-laws as rents climb
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Unable to afford homes of their own, many young couples in Baghdad are settling into their parents' and in-laws' houses after marriage, according to residents and specialists who spoke to Shafaq News. The arrangement cuts costs but, several residents said, strains marriages in homes often too small to hold a second family.
Many houses in the capital measure between 50 and 100 square meters, a size residents said cannot comfortably absorb an additional couple and their children.
Hassan Hammadi said he chose to stay in his family home because rents are beyond his reach. A 50-square-meter apartment, he said, rents for no less than 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month (roughly 340 US dollars), with prices varying sharply by district. “Staying with my relatives is a good start for me as a newly married man, sparing me rent and letting me save.”
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Ali Saadoun, a driver, built himself a room from sandwich panel, a prefabricated insulated board, on the roof of his grandfather's 100-square-meter house. “Renting independently would cost me 600,000 dinars or more each month before electricity and internet, while sharing my grandfather's generator and internet runs to no more than 150,000 dinars, saving me around 500,000 dinars.”
"Necessity has its own rules; we the poor bear everything and cooperate to get by," Saadoun said, adding that his earnings cover only his family's essential needs.
For wives, the same arrangement often becomes a source of conflict. Haifa Qasim, a mother of two, has lived for three years with her husband's family of ten. She said the shared home erodes privacy and draws constant interference in how she raises her children.
"My mother-in-law intervenes in everything, even the clothes I wear and the food I cook," Qasim said. “I threatened more than once to seek a divorce unless my husband secures independent housing, but I hold back because of his low daily wage.”
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Nadia told Shafaq News the lack of privacy and the cramped conditions left her children with no room to play and fueled disputes that, in her case, led her to seek a divorce. She added that she had proposed moving in with her own family, but her husband refused.
"The moment one of my children plays outside the room, my mother-in-law starts shouting and sends him into the street," Kadhim said.
Beyond individual households, the rent burden is reshaping family formation, according to economic analyst Burhan al-Bahadli. He told Shafaq News that high rents are lowering marriage rates and delaying the age of marriage while pushing more couples into overcrowded family homes. “Over the long term, independent housing risks becoming a privilege confined to higher earners, leaving middle- and low-income Iraqis dependent on living with relatives.”
The housing squeeze also carries psychological costs, said Ahmed al-Dhahabi, an academic specializing in psychology. “High rents deny young couples an independent start and can produce marital disputes that last for years and sometimes end in separation.” Living with relatives, he added, leaves couples feeling watched and unable to express themselves freely, while competing authority between spouses and in-laws can magnify minor disagreements.
"The wife finds herself facing two authorities, her husband's and his family's, while the husband feels torn between pleasing his wife and pleasing his parents," al-Dhahabi told Shafaq News, describing the arrangement as at best a temporary solution and constant friction in the home harms children's psychological development.
Iraq's housing deficit exceeds four million units, according to official data cited by al-Dhahabi.
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