Giga-projects PIF launches company to build worker accommodation By Neil Halligan October 21, 2024, 2:30 PM Reuters/Fahad Shadeed The housing needs of hundreds of thousands of workers on construction sites in Saudi Arabia will now be met by the Smart Accommodation for Residential Complexes Company Workers’ housing across economy ‘Significant opportunity’ as projects grow Investments in sector sought Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has established a company to develop and operate accommodation for workers employed on major projects in the kingdom. Smart Accommodation for Residential Complexes Company (Sarcc) will build workers’ accommodation for both public and private sector developers who are working on projects across the country. Sarcc will also seek opportunities to invest in the worker accommodation sector. It plans to involve private sector companies in construction, catering, transportation and retail. Khalid Johar, co-head of the local real estate portfolio department at PIF, said the worker accommodation market represented a significant opportunity, because of the growing number of construction projects across Saudi Arabia. Johar said the new company “will support PIF infrastructure and services linked to construction and real estate projects across Saudi Arabia, including Roshn Group, Saudi Downtown Company and New Murabba Development Company.” Knight Frank said last month that Saudi Arabia had launched $1.3 trillion in real estate and infrastructure projects over the past eight years as part of the Vision 2030 plan, an increase of 4 percent from a year ago. The Saudi real estate market has seen strong growth in recent months. The consultancy company CBRE reported that in the year to the second quarter of 2024, Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam have all recorded improvements in sale transaction volumes. Transaction volumes in Riyadh rose by just over half, reaching 18,500 sales, worth SAR26.6 billion ($7 billion), it said. The total volume of contracts awarded has reached $164 billion, Knight Frank said in its latest Saudi Giga-Projects Report. Riyadh dominates Saudi Arabia’s construction mark Neom ‘uses one fifth of world’s steel’ New Dammam project to house 50,000 residents Saudi Arabia’s giant Neom development project has recorded the largest value of contracts being awarded to date, at $28.7 billion, followed by National Housing Co. with $12 billion, Diriyah Gate at $9 billion and Qiddiya in Riyadh with $6.9 billion. Projects worth $195 billion have been lined up in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, also at the heart of job creation, and a magnet for young Saudis from elsewhere in the country, with $35 billion in actual contracts awarded to date. On the western seaboard, where 17 giga-projects are currently under way at an expected cost of $685.5 billion, $54.4 billion in construction contracts have been awarded. Earlier this month, observers said giga-projects have slowed down because of financing constraints and the government’s unexpected success in bidding for global events, which is redirecting even more resources towards Riyadh. The World Expo 2030 and the Fifa World Cup in 2034, events that were not in the original Vision 2030 document, have taken precedence over projects elsewhere in Saudi Arabia.
