Minister trumpets Saudi Arabia’s $168bn housing push

• SAR75bn in contracts unveiled
• Riyadh projects top of agenda
• 600,000 homes due by 2030

Real estate transactions in Saudi Arabia have totalled $168 billion so far this year, the Saudi minister of municipalities and housing, Majed Al Hogail, told a real estate forum in Riyadh this week.

Speaking at the Cityscape exhibition, which is trying to promote Riyadh-centred giga-projects, the minister said that Saudi Arabia is pushing to finish massive real estate projects before the World Expo in 2030 and the football World Cup in 2034. 

“The kingdom does not stop, ministers are taking part in global events every week that receive experts so that we can develop our nation and reach our ambitions,” Al Hogail said on Monday at the opening of the exhibition. 

“This event will open horizons for infrastructure, roads, buildings, sports facilities and transport. The National Housing Company will build over 600,000 units by 2030,” he said. 

• Saudi Arabia woos US investors to bolster housing sector

• Saudi home ownership fund hands out $257m in March

• ‘Affordable’ new suburb to be built in Mecca

The NHC is the biggest exhibitor at the event, showing affordable housing projects such as Khuzam and AlFursan in Riyadh, aimed at ordinary Saudis, as the government presses its argument that its $1.25 trillion Vision 2030 economic reform plan is not just about giga-projects aimed at foreign tourists. 

Mohammad Albuty, CEO of the NHC, told the forum: “With the projects that will be announced within the next year, 75 billion riyals awaits all contractors – there’s your first partner right there.” 

Albuty said that 63 percent of Saudis now own their own homes. The government aims for 70 percent ownership by 2030. 

Spa

With funding being poured into Riyadh after the World Cup and Expo hosting wins, Riyadh-based giga-projects such as Diriyah, Salman Park, Sports Boulevard and New Murabba have put on huge shows at the Cityscape exhibition, with virtual reality options to see how they might look. 

Turab Saleem, head of Middle East hospitality, tourism and leisure advisory at the property consultancy Knight Frank, told AGBI: “Now Riyadh projects are more on the top of their agenda, due to Expo and certain other reasons.” 

A Knight Frank report said Saudi Arabia will need to build 115,000 homes a year by 2030 to meet domestic housing demand. 

The mayor of Riyadh, Prince Faisal bin Ayyaf, told the forum that some land plots in the capital have been removed from a suspension list in a bid to push construction in the rapidly expanding city.