Saudi Arabia to build 53,000 new residential units in Riyadh
RIYADH, May 10, 2021
Saudi Crown Prince HRH Muhammad Bin Salman, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, has announced plans to build 53,000 new residential units in the north of capital Riyadh and transfer their ownership to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
This comes in line with the Crown Prince’s plan to double the number of housing units in the capital and help boost the rate of home ownership of nationals.
As per the directive from Saudi Crown Prince, new residential plots will be allocated on an area of 20 million sq m north of Riyadh in addition to the transfer of their ownership to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing.
This allocation aims to increase the residential area of Al Jawan suburb from 10 million sq m to 30 million sq m as well as to build additional fully served housing units up to 53,000 units in partnership with the private sector, in order to be added to the previously announced 20,000 housing units.
This reflects HRH Crown Prince’s continued support to the housing sector, and is in line with his ambitious plan to increase the percentage of Saudi families' home ownership to 70% in the next 10 years as part of Kingdom Vision 2030 programme. The government is now working to increase the ownership percentage of first homes from 47% to 60% within four years.
The proper planning and various solutions in the sector in addition to the supporting the real estate supply and enacting regulations and legislation have contributed to achieving this goal by the end of 2020, in implementation of Crown Prince's directives and the objectives of the housing programme, said the SPA report.
Lauding the initiative, Majed Al Hogail, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, said: "The additional lands allocated to the housing sector north of Riyadh will provide more than 53,000 various housing units that real estate developers will work on, taking into account the quality of services that meet the aspirations of citizens."
According to him, this gesture from HRH the Crown Prince comes in line with the development plans of Riyadh City in the economic, social, cultural and constructional fields in order to advance the services and facilities related to the citizen's life.
"This step is expected to enable more Saudi families to own homes and to generate more investment opportunities in order to enhance the private sector's participation, in line with the growth of Riyadh and its objective to become one of the 10 largest economic cities in the world and increase its population to 15-20 million by 2030," stated the minister.
According to him, the positive outcomes in the housing sector are attributed to the diligent follow-up and directives of HRH Crown Prince, who is the main supporter of the housing sector's development.
Al Hogail pointed out that the housing sector contributed more than SR115 billion ($31 billion) to the GDP and created about 40,000 direct and indirect jobs. "Riyadh represents nearly 50% of the non-oil economy in the kingdom," he added.
He said the cost of developing the infrastructure and real estate in Riyadh was around 29 per cent less than other cities, which would accelerate the injection of development projects in its various sectors and fields, including the housing sector, which is one of the most important sectors for the economy and attracts the investors.
