Saudi housing ministry eyes to build 200K residential units

Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi government is supporting the housing sector in an effort to dismantle all obstacles citizens face and overcome the challenges of the industry in tandem with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, said the Minister of Housing, Majed Al Hogail, during a recent virtual meeting held by Asharqia Chamber.

At the moment, the housing ministry is collaborating with 70 real estate developers and working to build more than 100,000 units in a number of projects across the kingdom. The ministry targets to build around 180,000 to 200,000 residential units on lands owned by the ministry and the private sector in the near future, the minister stated.

As for developmental housing, the minister said the programme has so far provided more than 18,000 residential units, noting that the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was the first donor to the Joodeskan platform, providing SAR 100 million, while Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman granted SAR 50 million to the platform.

The Saudi housing industry is witnessing major developments on a daily basis, with a sum of SAR 245 billion injected from the sector’s financing programs. Year-to-date (YTD), around 105,000 citizens obtained real estate financing whilst a total of 310,000 nationals were granted funding since 2017 to date.

The minister further pointed to some of the initiatives executed by the ministry, such as the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company’s (SRC) recently concluded agreement with the Saudi Public Pension Agency (PPA) to acquire a mortgage portfolio in Masakin programme worth more than SAR 3 billion.

SRC will continue to buy such portfolios to pump more liquidity into the sector as the ministry eyes to provide SAR 20 billion in the coming years, he added