RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Housing Majed bin Abdullah bin Hamad al-Hogail has revealed the country’s plan to provide adequate housing products, in terms of quality and price. He hailed the ministry’s coordination with other authorities to provide housing units to 1.6 million households in the coming phase. Hogail said that there are 12 programs that aim at creating strong governance including a housing program that will be launched in the third quarter of this year. Based on statistics, the minister of housing stated that every riyal spent on housing leaves an economic impact up to 4.7 times and affects the domestic product up to 2.8 percent. He also revealed the ministry’s ambitions that investments in the sector reach SAR500 billion (USD146.6 billion).
In the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference, which was concluded on Wednesday in Riyadh, Hogail said that the ministry will work on providing housing products for 1.6 million households in cooperation with relevant authorities. “In the previous period, the market has witnessed some challenges and this pushed many developers to housing units whose prices exceed SAR750,000 – in this way the supply was only 25% of the real demand of the market,” he said. The minister added that there are a couple of reasons that hindered the growth in the real estate market, lauding the fact that 90% of products are individual constructions. On the level of the banking sector, there is only one bank that grants autonomous funding. Other challenges are represented in the quality of the product and depending on individual income for funding.
