Saudi Arabia will need around three million new housing units by 2025 to keep up with the rapid population growth which is expected to hit 37 million over the next 10 years, said a report.

The housing ministry has 95 projects under the design phase, 25 under award and 67 under implementation, reported Okaz/Saudi Gazette, citing a senior official.

"This means the ministry has 187 projects with a total of 233,651 housing units," reported Hussein Al Zahrani, the director general of the ministry’s office in Makkah province.

According to him, Saudi Arabia will see a five million increase in the population over the next 10 years. To tackle the problem, the kingdom will require 330,000 new homes every year, said the report.

Al Zahrani stressed on the need to support the country's Real Estate Development Fund with additional funding to provide more housing loans to citizens. “This is the best solution for the housing problem,” he stated.

However, real estate agents argued that the country’s burgeoning population will require far more housing units than what the ministry has estimated.

The Saudi Engineering Council acknowledged the complexity of the problem. “The issue is not with engineering but with finance,” said Ghazi Al Abbasi, the council’s former secretary-general.

He said citizens prefer to purchase villas but would not be able to do so because of financial constraints, the report added.