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Abu Dhabi citizens receive $3.6bn in housing benefits

By Chris Hamill-Stewart
UAE citizens receiving housing aid include the elderly, retirees on lower incomes and widows Alamy/Yogendra Bahadur Kshetri via Reuters
UAE citizens receiving housing aid include the elderly, retirees on lower incomes and widows
  • Latest benefit award worth $2.1bn
  • Average $390k per recipient
  • 8,891 citizens included in 2024

To coincide with the UAE’s Eid Al Etihad celebrations, thousands of Abu Dhabi citizens have received housing benefit packages worth a total of AED7.72 billion ($2.1 billion).

This package, the third awarded this year, brings the total value of housing benefits disbursed to Emiratis during 2024 to AED13.2 billion ($3.6 billion)

This week 5,374 Emirati citizens were included in the latest round, meaning each will receive benefits worth an average of $390,000.

The package includes housing loans totaling more than AED3.5 billion in value and aiding 2,373 citizens. It also includes residential land and housing grants worth almost AED3.7 billion, benefitting 2,540 citizens. 

Senior citizens, retirees with low incomes and the families of deceased citizens have been exempted from housing loan payments amounting to more than AED486 million.

In 2024 8,891 citizens across Abu Dhabi received housing benefits.

The total value of housing benefits disbursed since the 2012 establishment of the Abu Dhabi Housing Authority has reached approximately AED162 billion, including around 118,700 housing benefits.

The Abu Dhabi government also announced in March it plans to build an AED3.5 billion residential project through a public-private partnership in the emirate to meet the housing needs of its citizens.

The project, comprising 1,146 residential villas on Al Raha Beach, was launched by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Media Office said in a statement.

Housing aid at the UAE level is dispersed to vulnerable citizens who do not already have access to a home. These include people with special needs, the elderly, widows, orphans, people with unknown parentage and women married to non-citizen men.

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