Buyers protest as City Oil apartment project stalls in Tashkent’s Bektemir district

City Oil LLC has failed to deliver an apartment complex in the Iqbol neighborhood of Tashkent’s Bektemir district within the promised timeframe. The Construction and Housing Utilities Control Inspectorate halted the project because the firm had started work without the required documents. Although the multi-storey building was due to be completed and commissioned this December, construction has not yet begun.

{Yii::t(}

Skip in 6s

Skip in

In 2019, by order of the Tashkent city mayor, City Oil was allocated 0.7 hectares of land in the Iqbol neighborhood to build a multi-storey residential building. The company, registered in 2018 and founded by Maryam Fayz LLC and Gulnoza Zohidova, has failed to deliver apartments on schedule.

Investors say construction began in 2019. However, contracts listed different delivery dates – some in 2022, others in 2023.

Citizen Oybek Egamberdiev recalls:

“In September 2023, I found this company. City Oil has many firms – Maryam Fayz, Ekolider. In the first quarter of this year, they put apartments up for sale. I paid 50 percent, with the rest to be covered monthly over two years. But our building is still just a foundation pit. They said it would be completed in 2025. The builder keeps saying work will start in 15–20 days, but nothing happens.”

Another investor, Abdurahmon Mamatqulov, also says the project has not gone according to plan. His apartment was supposed to be handed over in March 2022.

“We made the payment in February 2021 – 128 million UZS. It was supposed to be completed within a year. We barely managed to push them to build a structure. They promised to finish the facade so we could move in. But now there’s no progress at all – no workers, no roof or facade completed. Many are paying $300–400 per month for rent. When we ask, they just say ‘tomorrow, the day after.’ Only three employees are left there,” Mamatqulov said.

Citizen Azima Gaziyeva said the local authorities and the ministry had advised buyers to stop making payments for now.

“In June 2023, together with my two brothers and my son, we paid 50 percent each for three apartments. So far, we’ve each paid 240 million UZS. The authorities told us to hold off on payments for now. I even wrote a statement saying I’ll resume paying only when construction begins on my block. These buildings were supposed to be finished this December, but there isn’t even a foundation.

“Recently, I received a letter saying they want to cancel my contract unilaterally. When I went to the office to ask why, they said: ‘You’re an agitator, you gather people and go to the ministry to complain, you’re obstructing us.’ Now they want to fine me and are even filing a report with the police. Why? I’m disabled, and all I’m doing is demanding our rights,” she said.

Gaziyeva added that her appeals to higher authorities had yielded no results, with workers only showing up for one or two days at a time. She admitted she had trusted advertising when buying from this firm. Now a real estate agency has contacted her, offering to recover the money she paid – but in installments over 5–6 years.

“They told us: ‘We can only recover your money, but it’ll be paid back bit by bit to your bank card. As for housing, forget it – even in 2030 you won’t have your apartment.’ The contract listed Ilhom Salomov as City Oil’s director. Later I found out he was jailed, served his sentence, and released. Since then, three directors have changed,” she explained.

Citizen Adolat Usmonova was also supposed to receive her apartment this December, having paid over 200 million UZS. But construction on her block has not started.

“Since my children paid, I didn’t interfere. Now I live with my son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren in a one-room dormitory. Six of us are cramped in a tiny room. People keep asking my daughter-in-law where her mother-in-law sleeps, and they ask me too. I sleep in the kitchen,” Usmonova said.

She added that the conviction of former director Ilhom Salomov had affected construction progress.

A Kun.uz reporter contacted the company’s current director, Bahrom Yuldoshev. He said additional agreements were being signed with investors and that construction would soon resume.

“We already have a four-entrance building ready – it just needs to be registered by the state. Measures are underway for that. Until then, we cannot start the remaining phases. The authorities told us: ‘Do the state inspection within 1.5 months, then we’ll allow the rest.’ According to the schedule, work on the remaining blocks will start on 15 September. The four-entrance building will be handed over to residents by then. Interior finishing is complete, engineering networks and solar panels are being installed. The panels are ready, the supplier will install them soon – nothing else remains,” Yuldoshev said.

He added that the multi-storey apartments originally due in December this year would instead be completed by August 2026, with sufficient funds available for construction.

The Construction and Housing Utilities Control Inspectorate confirmed that the project had been halted because City Oil began work without registration.

“The project has no council conclusion or expert review,” the Inspectorate said in a statement.