Last week, the Committee on Hajj, Housing, and Services submitted a recommendation to the Shura Council, calling on the Ministry of Housing to allocate a specific percentage of housing units to low-income families within the approved housing plans for its projects to ensure social diversity, The committee called on the ministry to study setting a maximum rent cap for families receiving social security benefits and those in similar circumstances, so that support can be directed in accordance with this limit, and to expedite the delivery of the housing units allocated to these families, and to provide a roadmap and timeline detailing the handover schedule for units from completed projects.
It also called on the Ministry of Housing to intensify its public outreach efforts, based on transparency and clear information for beneficiaries of the Ministry’s services.
Member Dr. Mansour Al-Kuraidis asked, “How many citizens have actually received housing, and what was the homeownership rate in previous years, given the large number of housing units provided?” He noted the absence of performance indicators in the ministry’s report. Engineer Muhammad Al-Ali also called on the Ministry to clarify the number of people who have actually received housing units, noting that ”the Ministry stated in the report that, since the beginning of this year, it has been providing a housing program for 200,000 housing units to be delivered over the next three years, and that the number of beneficiaries so far is 156,000, which is a positive indicator; but it is essential to clarify details regarding the beneficiaries and the status of the projects, as the success of the Ministry of Housing’s strategy is measured by citizens“ access to housing units.”
Meanwhile, Council member Prince Khalid Al Saud noted that the report did not include any information on homeownership rates or the challenges facing the housing program.
He criticized the Ministry’s projects, which suffer from delays and a lack of clarity regarding the obstacles they face, noting that it takes three years to receive a housing unit, which causes hardship for citizens, as they must pay rent until they own their home.
Dr. Fatima Al-Qarni called on the ministry to cooperate with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs in informal settlements to develop and equip them so they become suitable for low-income residents to live in, explaining that services for retirees at the ministry have been neglected and have fallen short of expectations. Meanwhile, Dr. Jawaher Al-Anzi called for strict oversight of those who manipulate real estate prices or seek to create monopolies.
