The Crown Prince’s plan is to boost the percentage of Saudi home ownership to 70 per cent by 2030.

Saudi Crown Prince HRH Mohammed Bin Salman, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, has announced plans to build 53,000 new residential units in the north of capital Riyadh and transfer their ownership to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

This comes in line with the Crown Prince’s plan to double the number of housing units in the capital and help boost the percentage of Saudi families’ home ownership to 70 per cent in the next 10 years as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 programme. The government is now working to increase the ownership percentage of first homes from 47 per cent to 60 per cent within four years.

As per the directive from the Crown Prince, new residential plots will be allocated on an area of 20 million sq m north of Riyadh in addition to the transfer of their ownership to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing.

This allocation aims to increase the residential area of Al Jawan suburb from 10 million sq m to 30 million sq m as well as to build up to 53,000 additional fully served housing units in partnership with the private sector, boosting the previously announced 20,000 housing units.

Lauding the initiative, Majed Al Hogail, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, said: “The additional lands allocated to the housing sector north of Riyadh will provide more than 53,000 various housing units that real estate developers will work on, taking into account the quality of services that meet the aspirations of citizens.”

Al Hogail pointed out that the housing sector contributed more than SR115 billion ($31 billion) to the GDP and created about 40,000 direct and indirect jobs. “Riyadh represents nearly 50 per cent of the non-oil economy in the kingdom,” he added.

He said the cost of developing the infrastructure and real estate in Riyadh was around 29 per cent less than other cities, which would accelerate the implementation of development projects in its various sectors and fields, including the housing sector, which is one of the most important sectors for the economy and attracts the investors.