RIYADH — The monthly report issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) on Monday showed that 155,893 mortgage loans worth a total of SR7.8 billion were offered by all financing institutions including banks in May 2020. According to the report, housing loans registered a 19 percent increase in terms of their number and a 39 percent rise in terms of volume compared to the same period last year. Individual mortgage loans until May 2020 increased by 78 percent with 104,778 contracts being offered to individuals by financing institutions amounting to SR47.3 billion with an increase of 75 percent in terms of values compared to the same period of 2019 that saw 58,809 contracts being executed worth SR27 billion, the report said. The monthly report also pointed out that 97 percent of newly signed mortgage loans were executed through banks, while 3 percent of them were done by financing companies. The 14,372 housing product loans subsidized by "Real Estate Development Fund" concluded in May 2020 constituted 93 percent of the total number of contracts with a value of SR7.4 billion, or about 94 percent of the value of the funds. In May, residential villas acquired the largest portion of funding with SR6.309 billion about 80 percent of the total funding provided by banks and financing companies. Residential apartments came in second with SR1.254 billion (16 percent) while residential lands came in third with 294 million (four percent). According to the report, real estate mortgage in 2019 rose three times showing a historic performance with 179,217 contracts worth SR79.128 billion compared to 50,496 contracts amounting to SR29.5 billion in 2018 and about 30,833 contracts with a value of SR21.025 billion in 2017, while 22,259 contracts worth 17,096 billion in 2016.
