The Real Estate Development Fund (REDF), which aims to meet the needs and aspirations of the Kingdom’s citizens by providing financing programs for the development of high-quality housing, has successfully cleared out the entire backlog of 500,000 citizens on its waiting list to acquire their mortgage support from 2017 till 2020, and has achieved the Vision 2030 goal of 60 percent home ownership rate among Saudi beneficiaries by the end of 2020.
The last couple of years were fundamental for the REDF to reinstate its new transformation system and showcase its achievements since the fund first announced the new system in 2017.
Before 2017, the REDF had many accumulated challenges to overcome. More than 500,000 citizens were on the waiting list to acquire their mortgage support with an average waiting period of 12 to 15 years to claim the loan. The REDF had the capability to support only 20,000 citizens per year, which made it impossible to achieve the Vision 2030 goal of enabling 60 percent of Saudis to own their homes by 2020 and 70 percent by 2030.
Mansour bin Madi, CEO of the REDF, with his team of experts, had to find new innovative ways to accommodate this long waiting list in just three years to achieve the 2020 (60 percent) target. Hence, they developed a new loan system, transforming from direct lending from the REDF to indirect lending through renowned Saudi financial institutions, whereby the REDF subsidized the profit rate/ interest rate of mortgage loans of up to SR500,000 ($133,300).
“The perfect harmony between product innovation and proper communication is key to success,” said Majid Roshdi, chief of marketing and corporate communications at the REDF.
Indeed, REDF’s marketing and communications team played an important role under the direct supervision of the CEO, by conveying the new REDF system and its innovative product offerings to the right audience with proper messaging. This achieved 87 percent of awareness about the REDF within the targeted society. This result came after many successful activities such as transformation campaigns, more than 30 expos targeting governmental entities, Euromoney’s Saudi housing finance live online series conveying the success of the Saudi housing program, in addition to various product-centric and social awareness campaigns around the fund.
The REDF highly benefited from the resources and capabilities of its dedicated team as well as its financial and real estate partners. It was able to develop an award-winning digitized model (Real Estate Advisory), connecting it with all financial partners. This helped in building great confidence among the target audience, making the journey to own their homes easier and faster. The REDF was thus able to clear out the entire backlog of 500,000 citizens on the waiting list from 2017 till 2020, and achieved the 60 percent ownership rate of Saudi beneficiaries by the end of 2020.
REDF’s future plans and projects are huge and ambitious in order to meet the goals of Vision 2030 set by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The key objectives will be financial sustainability, strengthening the digital infrastructure and expanding financing programs, all keeping the well-being of Saudi citizens at the core of its programs and communications.
