Saudi ministry implements first private sector housing project

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Housing has reportedly implemented its first project in collaboration with the private sector to address a shortage of affordable housing.

Arab News reports that the ministry is working with Hamad and Ahmed Mohammed Al-Muzaini Real Estate Co for the East Gate project, which consists of 7,000 villas on 6.5 million square metres of land on the eastern side of the capital Riyadh.

Each villa in the community will cost SAR 640,000 and occupy a total land area of 316 square metres.

The publication cited company chairman Hamad Muzaini as saying the sale of the united would begin after Eid Al-Fitr.

“The villas have different engineering as well as external and internal designs. These are available depending on the buyer’s preferences and the financial capacity to pay,” he said, according to Arab News.

The country’s Real Estate Development Fund allows buyers to buyer up to SAR 500,000.

Saudi Arabia is seeking partners to build 1.5 million homes over the next seven to eight years.

Read: Saudi Arabia seeks partners to build 1.5 million homes

Under the scheme, the Saudi government will offer foreign and local property developers a partnership deal, whereby the developer would take the role of investor and bear the risk. In turn, the ministry will support projects by helping arrange financing.

Past efforts have seen the government set aside large amounts of state money to build homes. However, these have seen slow progress due to bureaucracy and a shortage of land.

Around SAR 59bn ($15.7bn) has been allocated to a loan guarantee programme and other housing schemes over the next five years to provide financing to homebuyers and real estate developers