The Ministry of Housing has launched 27,658 housing products across the Kingdom within its “sakani” (housing) program to allocate and deliver 280,000 housing products this year, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The program includes 7,700 financially supported products to be funded by banks and financing institutions; 7,723 land parcels without financial support; and 12,235 land parcels on maps (Wafi) in cooperation with real estate developers.
The number of housing and funding products has so far reached 127,957 since the inception of the program in February this year.
Announcing details of the program in a press briefing at the SPA, ministry officials said the Riyadh region has the highest rates of funded housing products with 2,174, and 1,061 housing units within the Wafi program.
The Makkah region received 1,155 funded products and 175 Wafi housing units, while Madinah, Qasim, the Eastern Province, Asir, Tabuk, Hail, the Northern Border, Jazan, Najran, Baha and Jouf received 528, 871, 834, 657, 301, 275, 216, 112, 198, 149 and 230 funded housing products, respectively.
The general supervisor of the partnership with the private sector, Ahmed Mandourah, said the partnership resulted in thousands of housing units built at prices ranging from SR250,000-SR700,000 ($66,662-$186,6542) to suit the purchasing power of eligible candidates.
The number of housing units to be sold on the Wafi program will reach 110,000 this year, and will be delivered to citizens in a three-year period at maximum, he said.
In this context, the general supervisor of the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF), Khalid Al-Amoudi, said the REDF will speed up delivery of housing funds in collaboration with banks and financial institutions. Since the beginning of this year, the REDF has managed to shorten the waiting period from 11 years to five, he said.