The Ministers of Justice, Labor, Municipal and Rural Affairs, Housing, and Water and Electricity, along with the Director General of Civil Defense, inaugurated the «Itmam» Developer Services Center at the Ministry of Housing headquarters, as part of an effective partnership among government sectors to serve the nation and its citizens and to facilitate all necessary services for housing projects implemented by real estate development companies.
Streamlining Procedures
The launch of this center aligns with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which emphasizes strengthening partnerships and transparency between government sectors and citizens, thereby helping to streamline procedures and facilitate access to all services provided by various sectors.
The center, which will gradually begin offering its services to cities starting with Riyadh in its first phase, is one of the key initiatives undertaken as part of the sector’s restructuring and reorganization, as it brings together a range of services provided by 12 government agencies in a single location to streamline the procedures necessary to serve the sector and enable citizens to secure suitable housing. These agencies are divided into the following main categories: the Ministries of Housing, Municipal and Rural Affairs, Justice, Labor, Water and Electricity, the General Directorate of Civil Defense, the Saudi Electricity Company, and the National Water Company, in addition to subsidiary agencies, namely: the Geological Survey Authority, the General Presidency of Meteorology and Environmental Protection, Aramco, and Ma’aden.
Comprehensive Services
The services provided by the center include issuing registration certificates for real estate developers, issuing building permits and certificates of completion, licensing the sale of residential units off-plan, land development permits, permits for marketing and showcasing off-plan sales projects, and the review and approval of plans, as well as a range of measures that ensure quality performance, thereby serving, regulating, and accelerating the sector, while ensuring transparency and clarity of objectives.
Promoting Joint Cooperation
The Minister of Justice and Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, Dr. Walid bin Muhammad Al-Samaani, praised the launch of the «Itmam» Developer Services Center and the promotion of cooperation between the Ministries of Justice and Housing as part of the wise government’s commitment to serving citizens in all areas and ensuring a decent standard of living for them, noting that the integration of efforts between the two ministries aims to increase the percentage of citizens who own housing suitable for them, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
Services for Developers and Real Estate Professionals
Housing Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail praised the positive cooperation among the relevant authorities and the efforts made to activate the services provided by the center and facilitate all necessary procedures, expressing his hope that the center would achieve its intended goals and explaining that the Developer Services Center aims to incentivize and support real estate developers to provide more residential units with diverse options that are characterized by high quality and prices suitable for all segments of society, in order to support the Kingdom’s housing market and increase supply, thereby enabling citizens to own high-quality housing units at affordable prices, noting that this initiative stems from Saudi Vision 2030, which emphasized the importance of increasing the rate of citizen ownership of suitable housing and achieving greater stability, in addition to stimulating the private sector and building an effective partnership with citizens to enable them to obtain suitable housing within a reasonable timeframe through homeownership pathways that offer financing and savings solutions tailored to their housing needs.
Partnership with the Private Sector
Al-Haqil noted that the Ministry aims to partner with the private sector and strengthen cooperation with leading companies in the fields of construction, housing, and real estate development, in order to achieve its vision of stimulating and advancing the sector in a manner that fulfills the directives of the leadership and meets the aspirations of citizens, noting that the Ministry had previously signed agreements with a group of local and international real estate development companies to increase the supply of housing units across all regions of the Kingdom, and affirming that the Ministry will continue to sign agreements with competent and distinguished companies in this sector to ensure the availability of more high-quality, affordable housing units.
Homeownership for Citizens
Meanwhile, Minister of Labor Dr. Mufarrij bin Saad Al-Haqbani praised the launch of the «Itmam» Developer Services Center, which was established in partnership with relevant government agencies, and said: «We hope that the »Itmam» Developer Services Center will contribute to fulfilling the leadership’s aspirations to achieve higher rates of home ownership among citizens, and we at the Ministry of Labor are ready to provide all necessary support for the Ministry of Housing’s vision and directives in order to serve citizens.”
