DAMMAM: The government has injected SR1.3 billion into the Saudi Real Estate Development Fund for housing loans to Saudis, but needs to produce greater mortgage options for homebuyers, the chairman of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said. “We need more financing firms as well as banks to facilitate homeownership, which has become a nightmare issue for as much as 70 percent of Saudis,” said Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed. Al-Rashed was speaking ahead of the three-day Real Estate Development and Housing Sustainability Symposium which opens Monday in Dammam, at which some 70 speakers will discuss real estate laws to improve market performance, the implications of real estate theory for development of the industry and housing sustainability, as well as regional and urban planning, exterior and interior design, and building and construction materials. Acting secretary-general of the Chamber Abdul Rahman Al-Wabil said that speed was the key in bringing in tabled laws. “The proposed new laws will improve the performance of the real estate market, reduce the housing crisis, and meet the needs of the state's ninth Five-Year Development Plan which plans for one million new housing units across the Kingdom,” Al-Wabil said. “The big challenge, however, lies in how fast new real estate legislation like the mortgage law, control of financing firm terms, and the rent-to-lease law, are brought into effect.” Al-Wabil noted that by the year 2020, the Kingdom will require 5.88 million housing units, with the population projected to break the 33.44 million-mark. “That means that at least 145,000 new housing units are going to be needed between 2007 and 2020,” Al-Wabil said. Saudi banks and lending firms have provided SR700 billion in loans to Saudi nationals, including SR200 billion in consumer loans which mostly were used for real estate purchases.
