Arab News, Monday, Jul 31, 2023 | Muharram 13, 1445
SNB, Real Estate Development Fund partner to boost housing projects
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi families seeking to own their first home are set to receive further
funding support thanks to a new agreement.
The Kingdom’s Real Estate Development Fund and
Saudi National Bank have signed a framework agreement to finance housing support
programs, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
This move is aimed at supporting beneficiaries,
elevating affordability and raising the efficiency of the market in line with
the Kingdom’s objectives for housing, one of the critical initiatives of Saudi
Vision 2030.
“We look forward to achieving more complementarity
in partnership with all financing agencies to provide financing solutions for
the updated housing support program packages, as part of the fund’s continuous
efforts to facilitate the journey of beneficiaries owning suitable
housing,” Mansour bin Madi, the Fund’s CEO and deputy chairman of the board,
said.
The deal comes after a series of agreements
concluded by the Fund with financing agencies with the aim of diversifying
housing support options for Sakani beneficiaries.
Launched in 2017 by the Fund, Sakani is a real
estate initiative aimed at supporting as well as enabling Saudi citizens to own
their first home.
There are currently five approved agencies
that provide financing solutions to support the housing program packages, bin
Madi explained.
Saudi residents have been benefiting from the
availability of more housing options as the number of residential rental deals
surged 137 percent in June compared to the same month in 2022, the SPA reported
last week.
The rental index revealed that more than 240,000
deals were recorded, reflecting 190,000 more agreements than those posted in the
same month a year earlier.
The index aims to achieve transparency and
stimulate investment in the Kingdom’s rental real estate sector.
The government’s ongoing initiatives including
access to finance are driving the Kingdom’s housing market while improving home
ownership among the Saudi families, according to a report released by PwC Middle
East in December 2022.
Saudi Arabia’s housing demand stood at 99,600
houses in 2021 and was expected to increase by more than 50 percent to reach
153,000 houses by 2030, the report stated.