The Minister of Housing Dr. Shwaish bin Saud Al-Dhuwaihi said in a statement today that "Owing to the keenness of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on providing adequate housing for citizens that warrants decent living, and based on the recommendations submitted by the Minister of Housing regarding means of facilitating the implementation of the Royal Order which has allocated SR250 billions to build 500,000 housing units throughout the Kingdom; the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques issued a Royal Order, authorizing the following: 1- The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs shall immediately relinquish granting municipal lands in accordance with all instructions that municipalities have. 2- Handing over all government lands intended for housing to the Ministry of Housing which will plan them, construct the necessary infrastructure, and distribute them to citizens based on eligibility mechanism. 3- The Ministry of Finance shall approve all necessary funds for the construction of housing land infrastructure noted in paragraph (2) above. 4- The Ministry of Housing shall grant citizens developed housing lands and loans to build on such lands in accordance with the eligibility mechanism. 5- The Ministry of Housing shall have full authority over the plans of its housing projects in accordance with the general regulations and requirements, and shall inform the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs about such actions. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques also instructed the ministries and competent authorities to provide the Ministry of Housing with all data necessary for the implementation of the project of defining housing eligibility mechanism noted in the Royal Order."
