Jordan Confirms Israelis Can Own Land in the Kingdom Under This Condition

Jordan has reiterated that Israelis are not allowed to own land in the kingdom except under one condition.

This confirmation followed confusion caused by instructions from the Ministry of Interior regarding the land ownership by non-Jordanians within the kingdom, which did not specifically mention a prohibition against Israeli ownership.

Ahmad Al-Amoush, the Director General of the Land and Survey Department, confirmed that Israelis are prevented from owning property in Jordan based on the principle of reciprocity. This comes after the establishment of rules and instructions for non-Jordanians acquiring real estate within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

“Al-Mamlaka” channel (governmental) quoted Al-Amoush saying that the reciprocity condition is stipulated by the real estate ownership law, requiring that Jordanians must be able to own property in any country for its citizens to own property inside Jordan.

He added that this condition is applied to foreign nationalities, not Arab ones.

The Jordanian Ministry of Interior confirmed that there are no changes or amendments to the rules and instructions for non-Jordanians to own properties within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Tariq Al-Majali, the official spokesperson for the ministry, stated that the Ministry of Interior’s approval of non-Jordanian ownership requests issued in the latest issue of the Official Gazette came pursuant to amendments made to the real estate ownership law and published in the Official Gazette on September 17, 2023, after being approved by the Parliament and completing all constitutional stages for their issuance.

Al-Majali pointed out that the amendments to the law specify in Article 133 that “non-Jordanian ownership of properties within the kingdom requires the approval of the Minister of Interior according to instructions issued for this purpose,” thus these instructions were issued in compliance with the provisions of the law and published in the latest issue of the Official Gazette.

He explained that the law absolutely prohibits non-Jordanians from owning properties in border, archaeological, and historical areas. The recent amendments also granted the Cabinet the authority to prohibit non-Jordanians from owning in any other areas it decides.

Furthermore, Article 139, Paragraph (a) of the real estate ownership law states: “Subject to the provisions of enforceable legislations and the condition of reciprocity, non-Jordanians may own properties for their personal residence or that of their family within the regulatory limits, based on the approval of the concerned authorities.”

Additionally, Paragraph (c) of the same article states: “The condition of reciprocity, stipulated in Paragraph (a) of this article, applies to every country whose nationality the non-Jordanian applicant holds, in case the applicant has multiple nationalities at the same time.”