On Tuesday morning, the Off-Map Sales Program Supervisory Committee held its first meeting at the Ministry of Housing in the presence of His Excellency Mr. Majid bin Abdullah Al Haqeel, Minister of Housing, in preparation for the transfer of the program's supervisory tasks from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Ministry of Housing.
The committee discussed a number of applications submitted by real estate development companies to obtain licenses to sell off-plan real estate units and marketing licenses for off-plan foreign properties (within the Kingdom) and took a number of decisions.
The committee, which was formed by a decision of the Council of Ministers, considers the applications submitted by real estate development companies to obtain a license to sell real estate units on the map, and the margin on the title deed of the property to be developed not to dispose of the property after the approval of the license application and before its issuance, and the margin is not removed from the project title deed record except at the request of the committee, and the instruments mortgaged with banks to finance off-plan sales projects are exempted according to the status of each project and completion rates as approved by the committee.
The committee shall also set the conditions and specifications for disbursement from the escrow account on the project and its supervision, determine the responsibility of the engineering supervision office on the project, the legal accountant, inspection and specialized quantity surveying companies and their role in disbursing payments for project expenses, set the conditions for consumers' rights and operating conditions in the common utilities in the real estate development project, and establish a record that includes the arrangement and documentation of the sale of off-plan units in any real estate project.
Also, the committee shall set the conditions and specifications for disbursement from the escrow account on the project and its supervision. The committee also sets the conditions for the disclosure of sold properties and the mechanism to protect consumers from developers or brokers selling the same property to more than one buyer and specifying the documents required for registration in the register of real estate developers.
The supervisory committee also includes a committee to set the conditions for consumers' rights and operating conditions in the common benefits of the real estate development project. <The supervisory committee includes a number of government agencies, namely: Ministry of Housing, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Monetary Authority, Industrial Cities Authority. The off-plan sales program announced in its annual report for 2015 that the number of projects supervised by it exceeded 29 thousand real estate units in various regions of the Kingdom with an approximate total value of more than 34 billion riyals.
It is noteworthy that the Royal Decree was issued approving the transfer of the supervision of the off-plan sales activity and the committee formed in this regard from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Ministry of Housing, where the final arrangements are underway.
