75% of Saudis to own house within 5 years

JEDDAH: The Ministry of Housing has announced its intention of enabling 75 percent of Saudi citizens to own houses.

That amounts to approximately 1.5 million families and the ministry says it will cut the time to get a construction license from six months to two months. This is scheduled to occur by the year 2020.
According to reports, the ministry is currently working on 67 projects, and is doing everything possible to finish them as soon as possible. In addition, more than 66,000 housing units are under construction and 120,000 new projects have been designed that will provide 162,000 housing units.
The ministry said that some citizens cannot afford to buy houses and that the Kingdom had a shortage of affordable housing units. The ministry wants to provide housing for 230,000 families whose income is less than SR6,000 per month. The ministry wants to establish a housing program that will increase the funding share of owning accommodation through real estate loans which will increase from 3 percent in 2015 to 25 percent in 2019.
The ministry said that it hoped to provide a large number of units at reasonable prices by developing and distributing 100,000 units this year, in addition to providing 300,000 housing units over the next few years.
The ministry stated that it would increase spaces for housing projects through imposing fees on unused lands in urban areas, and transferring financial returns to housing programs which are supported by the government.
The ministry is trying to speed up procedures to enable housing companies to get a construction license by establishing a comprehensive center to provide services to housing companies in addition to reducing time needed to getting a building license from six months to two months.
The ministry confirmed that building licenses and time needed to get them will be carried out this year in order to facilitate procedures.