Experts suggest ways to develop Arab housing sector

The fourth Arab Housing Conference in Riyadh made several recommendations to develop the housing sector in the region.

RIYADH: The fourth Arab Housing Conference has recommended building urban communities, not housing complexes and establishing the infrastructure needed to achieve a public-private partnership to develop the housing sector.
The conference, which was attended by housing ministers of Arab countries, officials of government bodies, universities, companies and researchers, concluded its deliberations Thursday.
The conference also recommended the creation of a suitable and attractive environment for the private sector to develop and finance housing projects through enhancing transparency levels and wise governance in legal, organizational and funding relations between the private and government sectors.
The chairman of the organizational committee of the conference, Nasir bin Abdullah Ammar, said recommendations included benefiting from local and global experiences in the field of legislation, funding and development of the housing sector.
The conference concluded with the passing of a law regarding mortgages. It was a move from a preliminary funding system to the secondary one to take mortgages from real estate banks and invest the available liquidity in a government establishment, or borrow from them.
The conference recommended devising long term polices that aim to support the cooperative housing sector under the supervision of the state to achieve the national visions in this field.
It also recommended training Arab legal staff to guarantee the development of legal and organizational relations and overcome obstacles that stand in the way of establishing an effective relationship between the private and public sector.
Additional recommendations included the activation and development of legislation and organizations to limit the existence of white land inside urban zones. Participants called for the continuous evaluation of housing polices according to economic and social variables in the Arab world, by gauging satisfaction levels about projects executed jointly by the private and public sectors and to guarantee their sustainability.