Baghdad mansions are hot property for Iraqi elite

Istanbul

ISLAMIC State militants may be at the approaches to Baghdad yet members of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim elite are offering cash for US$1 million homes in the capital's sought-after Zayouna neighbourhood.

Gilded mansions with jacuzzis in Italian marble bathrooms and armoured vehicles parked in the drive are replacing the humbler dwellings of the former middle-class Sunni, Shi'ite and Christian inhabitants, according to real estate agents. House prices in the district, they said, have risen threefold since 2005.