The monthly report issued by Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) revealed that the number of new residential mortgages for individuals provided by banks and institutions reached 155,893 contracts until last November 2019, with total value exceeding SR69 billion. SAMA's report explained that the total number of individual's mortgage grew to 254% and about 167% in the volume of loans during 2019, by comparing to 44,021 contracts with value of 26 billion in the same period 2018. In November 2019, the number of new real estate loans reached 20,525 contracts with an increase of 13,000 contracts compared to November 2018 that recorded 6720 contracts. At the same time, the volume of mortgage increased by 154%, annual based of 9 billion, compared to 3,563 billion in November 2018, with increase of 5.5 billion. The report points out that, 94% of individuals real estate contracts concluded in November 2019 was through commercial banks, while about 6% offered by finance companies. In November, the volume of financing villas proved the largest proportion by 7.2 billion, which is 80% of total mortgages, while apartments hit 14% with SR1.3 billion, purchasing land 6% with a value of SR546 million. Statistics indicate that in November 2019, the number of subsidized contracts supported by governmental housing programs is around 93% of the total contracts, which is 19,015 contracts. The total value of these contracts is more than SR8.3 billion, about 91% of the total value for contracts in November 2019. According to SAMA, the total number of residential mortgage contracts offered to individuals by the end of 2018 amounted 50,496 contracts with value of SR29.5 billion, and in 2017 about 30,833 contracts with value of SR21,025 billion, while 2016 was about 22,259 mortgage contracts worth SR17,096 billion. — SG
