Saudi firm helping Kingdom achieve its affordable housing goals

RIYADH: Maximiliano Development Management Services (MDMS), a development company offering interior design, architectural and engineering services, has partnered with the Saudi government on a number of large projects to raise the level of homeownership in the Kingdom.

Headquartered in Riyadh, the company launched into the real estate industry in 2015, specializing in the development of affordable housing. Under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, the government is aiming to increase homeownership in the Kingdom to 70 percent, up from 45 percent in 2017.

Marwa Ahmed Murad, managing director and founder of MDMS, outlined to Arab News the progress on some of their latest projects. “We have completed and launched the designs for the Dar Sumou project in Jeddah, and it is expected that construction work will be completed and the units will be delivered in 2024,” she said.

“We recently handled the off-plan sales promotional and sales booth for the Dar Sumou project, which displays the design of the 412-unit housing project that highlights the tastes and needs of the community.”

The housing units at Dar Sumou are detached and semi-detached villas, duplexes and townhouses, with sizes ranging from 242 to 357 square meters and key services such as mosques, health centers, schools and recreational green areas.

The Dar Sumou project is part of the Saudi Ministry of Housing’s Sakani program, which aims to help more than 300,000 families by offering subsidized real estate loans for the purchase of prefabricated units, units under construction and constructed units, Murad said.

MDMS has also been working closely with the National Housing Co. to develop housing projects for Saudi citizens.

It has been involved in the Murcia project, one of the largest in Riyadh, which will see the construction of more than 5,000 housing villas and apartments. MDMS is the sales consultant for the first two phases of the Murcia project and has successfully sold 90 percent of the units in phase one.

MDMS also handled the engineering, design, construction, marketing and promotion of the Rawas Inn residential project in the north of Yanbu Al-Bahr, resulting in 99 percent of the project units being sold.

The firm carried out marketing and sales for the Al-Wouroud City residential project, one of the biggest residential projects in the Kingdom. Its team is composed mainly of Saudi nationals who are experts in the fields of design, engineering and construction.

“We recently signed an agreement with MSKANK, a reputable housing cooperative society that works to provide housing and services for residential communities,” said Murad. Under the agreement, MDMS will provide full development services for the MSKANK residential projects, including planning, design, land development and all marketing and sales services.

MDMS is looking forward to continuous growth and is focused on strengthening the company so that it may be recognized in the region for its design, engineering and construction projects.

Murad noted that real estate is one of the most important forms of support for other sectors, especially “the huge projects that the Kingdom is working on, such as the Red Sea and Qiddiya projects, and the large housing projects across the country that the Ministry of Housing is working on developing.”

According to a report by the US-Saudi Business Council, homeownership in Saudi Arabia is one of the key initiatives of Vision 2030 and saw record growth during 2020 amid the pandemic. The number of new residential mortgages for individuals in 2020 totaled SR 136.2 billion ($37.09 billion), outpacing 2019 levels by 83 percent, the report said.

The number of families moving into homes through the Sakani affordable housing program grew 27 percent year-on-year and benefited 138,300 families. These positive shifts were borne out of recent regulatory and financial developments that have aided in the expansion of affordable housing options for Saudis.