JEDDAH: The Jeddah Governorate’s Undeveloped Neighborhoods Committee has begun paying SR 1 billion (nearly $267 million) in compensation to citizens whose properties were demolished as part of the city’s massive development project.
The government has provided services to the owners of the demolished properties in the coastal city, where the municipal authorities have evaluated tens of districts for restoration, modification, or demolition.
The disbursement to the first group of beneficiaries was attended by the Governor of the State Properties General Authority (SPGA), Ihsan Bafakih, along with Jeddah Mayor Saleh Al-Turki.
The committee affirmed that the rest of those eligible for compensation are scheduled to receive their money after the completion of the appraisal work of the real estate and the citizens completing the required documents for the compensation.
It said that the compensation is an extension of the efforts by government bodies to reorganize slums and improve the quality of life there.
The property appraisal work in the demolished districts, it said, was carried out by committees consisting of six members from four ministries — the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing, Ministry of Finance, and SPGA — and two accredited appraisers selected by the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers (Taqeem).
The committee said that the evaluation was based on technical criteria for each neighborhood, where the value of the land was evaluated separately from the value of the rubble.
Citizens who do not have legal ownership documents for the property will only be compensated for the demolished building. The committee said that the area, location, and type of the property and whether it is a residential, commercial, or just a vacant land were all taken in consideration in the appraisal process.
The committee called on all citizens whose property has been demolished to quickly complete the procedures for receiving the compensations. They were also asked to provide the required papers and documents, including a copy of the deed or document, owner’s data with a clear copy of their national IDs in a PDF format, along with their IBAN accounts.
It urged these citizens to provide quittance letters from the Saudi Electricity Co., National Water Co., Real Estate Development Fund, and the Agricultural Development Bank.
The committee noted that SPGA has allocated several communication channels to serve citizens and to respond to their inquiries through the authority’s number: 920022447 or email: [email protected], in addition to its Twitter account @spgacare.
To date, the committee has begun demolition work in 26 districts covering an area of 18.5 million square meters.
Eight of these districts are located within the lands of the King Abdulaziz Endowment for Al-Ain Al-Aziziyah, a charitable project established in 1948 to transport water to the city.
Municipal officials say the demolition work is due for completion by mid-November.
