Our beloved country celebrates its 87th National Day as it strides steadily toward human development, which is at the heart of our wise leadership’s vision and aspirations. This national anniversary comes as we live in security, peace, and stability, inspiring us to reflect on theread the history of men who forged glory and overcame hardships until the impossible became possible, in a homeland that taught us how belonging can be sincere and security a reality, and loyalty a path followed by generation after generation, their hearts yearning to honor the Founding King, Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud—may God have mercy on him—and after him, his sons, the kings, who have spared no effort in their quest to achieve the well-being of the people of our beloved Kingdom.
As we look forward to celebrating the Kingdom’s National Day and renew our resolve to continue the developmental renaissance of the Saudi people and provide them with a lifestyle befitting their dignity through the provision of essential services, the Council of Ministers, in its session last week chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz—may God preserve him—with the long-awaited decision by the real estate community and those interested in the housing sector: that funds allocated for public-private partnership initiatives be deposited in the Ministry of Housing’s budget, effective from the current fiscal year and beyond.
In our view, this important step will contribute effectively and rapidly to improving the performance of the residential real estate sector by providing support for housing initiatives, transforming them from paper, drawers, and web pages into reality. It has been given a strong foundation and backing from our wise government, which has consistently provided the housing sector with care and support on every occasion to achieve its goals of providing citizens with suitable housing.
As we mark this year’s National Day, four initiatives from the Ministry of Housing (the initiative to form partnerships with private-sector developers on Ministry-owned land, the initiative to incentivize the development of housing products on land subject to white land fees, the initiative to incentivize the development of housing products on private-sector land, and the initiative to develop Ministry-owned land) are poised to launch, having been provided with all the means for success. The ball is now in the private sector’s court, represented by real estate developers with the expertise and resources to provide housing according to the required specifications and the agreed-upon timeline, so that citizens may see the fruits of direct government support for these initiatives, by increasing and stimulating supply.
We hope that the Ministry of Housing will take advantage of this decision by conducting further technical consultations to formulate a matrix of housing products in accordance with the wishes of the citizens concerned, first and foremost, so that we do not fall once again into the trap of distorting the real estate market and upsetting the balance of supply and demand.
