Riyadh-Amlak
Minister of Housing Dr. Shuwaish Al-Duwaihi confirmed the ministry's intention to impose fees on unused white lands within the urban area and create special planning requirements with dynamic designs to reduce land prices and introduce them to the housing market, this came during a recent television interview with His Excellency, through which he spoke about the strategy of “housing” in light of the royal decisions that boosted housing projects.
Minister of Housing Dr. Shuwaish Al-Duwaihi.
Ministry Strategy
Al-Duwaihi said: «The ministry is currently working on a strategy to impose fees on those who do not develop white lands within the urban area during the next phase in order to reduce the price and break the monopoly that brought land prices to the highest levels in the history of the Kingdom,» explaining that «the ministry is seeking with other ministries to find a package of regulations that contribute to creating a balance in supply and demand in order to alleviate the burden of the housing crisis, and will expropriate unused grants for investment,» adding: «State policy is based on reducing land prices.«
He explained that investment in white land within cities and urban areas is not productive »because it is not a commodity for trading and speculation, so the ministry will impose fees on it and planning requirements, in addition to implementing service requirements such as water, electricity and communications when planning it.»
Entitlement mechanism
Regarding the eligibility mechanism for citizens applying to the ministry for housing, Al-Duwaihi said, »There are scientific studies of the eligibility mechanism for citizens that will be based on supporting the lower categories and finding new ideas for those with high financial solvency.» He refused to set a date for the announcement of the eligibility mechanism, but indicated that it »will be announced very soon.«On the areas of land expected to be distributed, Al-Duwaihi said, »The area of land at the ministry revolves in the range of 500 square meters may increase slightly or decrease and will be given to the deserving citizen to build a housing unit that meets his needs,« adding, «Whatever the Ministry of Housing works, it will not reach an area number that meets the needs of the citizen.«
Al-Duwaihi emphasized that »the Ministry of Housing seeks to apply the eligibility mechanism with the aim of ensuring two things, the first is the citizen entitled to this support, and the second is who is more deserving, and this mechanism enters into many detailed points, including delivering support to its beneficiaries with all justice and fairness, and achieving balanced development in all regions of the Kingdom,« indicating that »the ministry seeks in cooperation with other agencies to access all information about those entitled and deliver support to them, and on this basis the ministry has concluded contracts with consultants and attracted many Saudi competencies that have experiences in infrastructure planning, and the ministry will not be alone in its decisions.“
”Housing« and developers
Al-Duwaihi revealed that the lands that the ministry will grant to citizens in the next phase will be in fully serviced places and connected to the urban block that can be lived in, and the entitlement mechanism will be announced during the next few months and will be more ready if all the information is available.
<In another aspect, Housing Minister Shuwaish Al-Duwaihi confirmed that the ministry »has not yet signed any contracts with real estate developers in the regions of the Kingdom,« and indicated that if there is someone who offers a real estate industry that serves all segments of citizens and is approved by citizens and suits their income will be signed with him directly, and that the 250 billion granted by the state for the «The ministry is currently consulting with other ministries to compensate white land traders by opening and encouraging other channels for their investments that benefit the national economy instead of investing in raw lands that do not provide added value to the national economy.»
During the meeting, Al-Duwaihi touched on various issues that concern investors and housing seekers, stressing the ministry's efforts to reduce rents and form an information base through the «Ijarah» system and revealed the details of the recent Real Estate Development Fund programs on «accelerated loan», »additional loan» and »guarantor", stressing cooperation with banks in order to benefit from the liquidity they have and revealed that the state bears any interest imposed by banks that does not conflict with Islamic law.
