RIYADH: Saudi Public Investment Fund-owned community developer ROSHN Group aims to gain 20 percent of the real estate market share in the coming years amid a boom in the Kingdom’s property industry, the company’s top official said.
According to a statement by the Chief Development Officer Oussama Kabbani, the rise will be in the mid-market segment, hence the company’s focus on the middle class.
“Real estate bookings are huge this year and we expect our market share in the mid-market to reach 20 percent over the coming years,” Kabbani said in an interview with CNBC Arabia.
“The biggest demand is in Riyadh right now,” he added.
In July, ROSHN and the Expenditure and Project Efficiency Authority, also known as Expro, signed a memorandum of understanding to build residential communities.
The partnership aims to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of ROSHN, in addition to boosting its activities and enable long-term development and planning.
The PIF-backed company also signed eight giga contracts in March during the Private Sector Forum in Riyadh, worth SR8 billion ($2.1 billion) to develop modern infrastructure and facilties across the several projects it is developing in the Kingdom.
“The pace of work at ROSHN’s project encourages us to partner with the private sector to achieve our goals, these types of partnerships are core to what we do at ROSHN, as we are mandated to uplift the industry and raise the bar in the real estate sector by providing new modes of living that contribute to raising the quality of life in Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030 goal,” Kabbani said.
According to a report by Knight Frank, Saudi Arabia’s housing sector recorded an 8 percent increase in apartment-linked mortgages in the 12 months to the end of May.
The firm claimed that although having a villa continues to be the top aspiration of Saudi’s, apartments are quickly becoming a more practical alternative from an affordability viewpoint, although the cost of these homes are rising in cities like Riyadh.
The Ministry of Housing is expanding choices to accommodate the rising demand for affordable homes and meet the government's aim of 70 percent homeownership by 2030 despite the market’s continued lack of supply.
