Saudi Gazette THE newly founded University of Jeddah partnered with the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers to launch a new program for students in real estate studies. This was announced at a two-day Real Estate Industry Forum under the auspices of the University of Jeddah that concluded on Thursday. There is a shortage of Saudis working in the real estate market, according to Secretary-General of the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers Essam Al-Mubarak. "There are 5,000 jobs currently available but no Saudis are qualified with specialized degrees," he told Saudi Gazette. "It's important to developing this profession in planning, property, valuation and many areas of real estate." There are no universities in the Kingdom that offers a degree in real estate, he added. Jeddah University is the first local university to partner with the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers that has previously partnered with international organizations and institutes. Professor Abdelfatah Mashat, president of the university, signed a partnership agreement with the authority to offer a program to students and graduates that incorporates academic and career experience at the same time. "The role of universities in this industry is to offer qualified Saudis to meet the needs of the job market," Dr. Abdelelah Saati, dean of the college of business, told Saudi Gazette. "At the moment, no universities in the Kingdom are offering this degree." About 59 percent of valuers and developers are non-Saudis, according to Dr. Bader Alyoubi, assistant professor of Management Information Systems. "This is a major issue in such a vast market." He further said, "We did a benchmark comparing real estate degree programs in colleges of business in Saudi universities with American and British universities. There are no specialties in Saudi universities, so we launched this forum to study this need." On obstacles in the real estate market, Alyoubi said, "There is no data for real estate market for consumers. In addition, there are no specialized real estate experts, and agencies still don't give credible values of the market." Experts in the public and private sector further discussed obstacles and challenges in real estate, such as eliminating bureaucratic hurdles and complicated procedures in order to further develop the industry and increase performance in accordance with the Vision 2030. "Real estate needs to be an attractive environment in order to solve many issues, including job creation," Saati said.
