Riyadh-Amlak
The Ministry of Housing clarified that the area of land that will be given to the citizen from 415 to 500 square meters, which are the plans that the ministry worked on, pointing out that the grants it has are “municipal” and 600 square meters, this came during a meeting that brought together the Housing, Water and Public Services Committee in the Shura Council with Deputy Minister of Housing Engineer Abbas Hadi and Deputy Minister of Housing Engineer Abdul Naser Asiri, in addition to the supervisors of the Technical Affairs Agency, Planning and Studies Agency and the Director General of Administrative and Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Housing.

Riyadh.

Details of the strategy
The meeting touched on revealing some of the details of the national housing strategy, which included a program for charitable housing and the proposal to establish a fund for it to take care of the housing of the poor, whether through financial or housing support. Housing officials told the committee that “the program is almost ready and will be submitted for approval,” noting that the ministry has set a priority for the lowest income and did not exclude anyone because of his income and the priority of grants was given to the owner of the lowest income.
The guests of the Housing Committee hoped that the charitable housing fund would be established to pay for citizens who cannot complete their installments and the state would fulfill its rights, reiterating that they should be given priority for land and loans, whether the charitable fund is established or the state takes over.
The Ministry of Housing officials pointed to the challenges it faces in the hottest housing file in the country, saying that neglecting the housing sector for a period of time has resulted in a shortage of land, a shortage of supply, speculation and monopoly, and that support goes to citizens in a way that is not based on accurate eligibility.
The officials revealed in their answer to the ministry's first annual report, which is being discussed by the Shura Council, that the ministry is now preparing the national housing system after submitting the national housing strategy to the concerned authorities. They explained that one of the results of the strategy is the establishment of a center for housing studies and research, partnership with the private sector and charitable housing, which are programs that the ministry started working on before submitting the strategy and it has two regulatory programs, the first of which is the eligibility program aimed at identifying beneficiaries accurately and efficiently and ensuring that the support goes to those who deserve it, and the second program is to regulate the rental sector. The Ministry of Housing officials warned of the high percentage of unutilized white lands within the urban area and said that there are 30 to 70% of these lands and believes that it is an obstacle to development in general and housing in particular, which is an economic wealth that is idle and the interest in it is focused on a small group of society in exchange for harming a large number of people who did not find housing, which forced the state to give grants far from urbanization and extend services to them for hundreds of millions, and the costs may reach billions.

As for the old neighborhoods, according to its officials, the Ministry of Housing will not be able to handle their file alone, but if the issue of ownership and expropriation is resolved and they are in the process of construction, the Ministry has no issue in allocating some of these lands to them, while the slums do not mind participating in their development in cooperation with municipal affairs after resolving their issues.“

The number of housing in the Kingdom is estimated at 4.6 million and the number of applicants to the Real Estate Development Fund is 2.3 million, so half of the Kingdom's housing will be built theoretically, and the budget needed to cover this is ”one trillion and one hundred and fifty billion" riyals, a very large amount that cannot be achieved.

Regarding the eligibility mechanism and the support of the Real Estate Fund with 100 billion, the officials stated that the Minister of Housing chairs the Board of Directors of the Fund and the eligibility mechanism is for the Fund and the Ministry and the goal that will happen after the mechanism is finalized is to put an electronic window through which the citizen submits and reports whether he wants to give him a land, loan or ready-made housing unit and there is no conflict between the work of the Fund and the integrated approach.

Regarding the mechanism for repaying the value of housing unit loans, officials said in their answers to the questions of the Housing Committee that he does not dispose of the housing for a full 10 years and is not released in his name until after he has paid the full amount and then the deed is released in his name and he can dispose of it.
Regarding the 600,000 loan applications for citizens from the Real Estate Fund, the ministry emphasizes that it will not risk interfering with these applications, as citizens have numbers and due dates, and any change in it will cause great trouble for the state, and this system must continue until the completion of previous applications.

The answers of the officials listed the ownership ratios in the Kingdom and some countries as 63% in the Kingdom, 5% in Egypt, 57% in France and 54% in the Netherlands, while the countries with the highest percentage of the Kingdom are Singapore 90%, Britain and Jordan 70%, then the United States 68% and Canada 67%.

Finally, with regard to the recent royal order on giving citizens a land and loan, the ministry emphasizes that the decision addressed the challenge of approving plans and gave housing the authority to approve them according to the standards of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, and housing seeks to make its plans higher than the standards of municipal affairs and closer to what is practiced in the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.