Interviewer: Samih Jamal
Engineer Hamed bin Hamri, CEO of Tamkeen Investment and Real Estate Development Company, revealed that the "Saudi Homes" initiative recently launched by his company comes from a national perspective in line with the aspirations of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and His Highness the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - may God protect them - which is summarized in the Kingdom Vision 2030 and one of its most important goals is to increase local content in all industries and activities.
Bin Hamri explained that the initiative has already produced the first Saudi house 100 %, which was implemented in only 70 days by relying on local content in all details of the production process, which includes management and supervision of the implementation stages in addition to structural and interior designs, materials used, and all high-quality national construction and finishing materials, to reach the initiative to create Saudi homes and housing units with Saudi identity and content, characterized by quality and efficiency.
About more details, Amlak Real Estate Newspaper met with Hamed bin Hamri, CEO of the company and conducted the following interview:
You announced the completion of the first residential unit 100 %, what exactly do you mean?
We mean our completion of the first housing unit with 100% Saudi content for the first time in the Kingdom's history, through the "Saudi Homes" initiative that we announced on December 20, 2017, through which we adopt national content in all details of the production of housing units, starting with designs, supervision, management, construction with construction materials, finishing materials, equipment, and 100% Saudi cadres.
What do we mean exactly?
This approach and achievement seeks to keep pace with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 approved by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which includes among its strategic objectives the promotion of local content and increasing reliance on it in all sectors.
When did you start preparing for the Saudi Homes Initiative?
As soon as His Highness the Crown Prince announced the Kingdom's Vision 2030 on April 25, 2016, and the clarity of the future direction towards supporting and promoting local content in all sectors, we saw that it is our national duty to have a real contribution to the vision of the country, especially as we are active in the field of real estate development, which is the main engine for dozens of sectors and supporting industries, hence we started intensive workshops aimed at increasing the Saudi content in our products, and after in depth technical and investment studies, we made our decision to adopt local content by 100% in all our residential products.
<p class="p1How difficult was it for you to achieve this goal?
The highness of the goal left us no room to pay attention to any difficulties, or to think about retreating or giving up on its full realization, when the work is for and for the homeland, obstacles turn into incentives and all possibilities are favorable.
In fact, we raised the ceiling of the challenge for ourselves and our technical crews at Tamkeen when the required achievement was summarized in a modern home that takes into account the requirements of society and modern life, characterized by intelligence, sustainability, energy saving, water saving, quality and beauty, and certainly with Saudi content 100%, and by the grace of God we achieved these criteria and produced the first housing unit with Saudi content in just 70 days.
Thus, we have succeeded once again in implementing Tamkeen's real estate investment and development strategy that was launched 10 years ago, which is to launch quality initiatives that establish a real estate industry.
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Honestly, everyone is waiting for residential units regardless of their components?
This is true, but note that Saudi developers have succeeded in providing distinctive housing products over the past years, and these products are characterized by different levels and suitable for all segments of society, and this encouraged the Ministry of Housing to contract with a number of real estate development companies - Tamkeen among them - to implement the ministry's projects in the Kingdom, so producing housing units is not an issue in itself.
Tamkeen is one of them.
What we offer through Saudi Homes is to seek a greater benefit for the production of housing units, which will be a foregone conclusion, by answering the following question:
What we offer through Saudi Homes is to seek a greater benefit for the production of housing units.
Since we will be producing thousands of housing units, how can we maximize the benefit to the nation from this entitlement? The answer is simple: Make sure that all national parties, the engineer, the worker, the factory, the manufacturer, the trader, the developer, the citizen and thus the national economy, benefit."
Your initiative is a legitimate goal. But can you achieve it?
For us at Tamkeen, we hung the bell, started ourselves, turned theory into practice, and are determined to complete the challenge to its end, and we are confident in the national product, national expertise, and we are confident in the Saudi community that it will support us. will support us because we are committed to producing a Saudi home 100% with the quality that achieves its purpose through reliable guarantees that reach decades, as well as the price that suits the possibilities of the widest segment of society, as prices in Saudi homes start from 380 thousand riyals,
A house that meets the needs and requirements of the Saudi family, is compatible with the environment, is energy efficient and can be completed quickly.
Do you expect competition, especially when the prices of imported materials are cheaper?
We do not look from this angle, our goals are to provide a fully integrated national product, we have a huge housing market with many options, and producing a fully Saudi house, we believe it is a worthy goal, and the price difference, if any, does not represent anything in front of the benefits that Saudi houses will achieve.
We do not look from this angle, our goals are to provide a fully integrated national product, we have a huge housing market and the options are many.
How has the Saudi Homes initiative resonated with you?
The echoes were wonderful and the initiative found a great response from several parties because everyone realized the seriousness, the loftiness of the goal, the feasibility of the orientation and its positive repercussions on all parties to the development process, and the reactions were divided into four levels, the first level: The official side, represented by the blessing and support of His Royal Highness the Deputy Emir of the Eastern Province, Prince Ahmed bin Fahd bin Salman, who reviewed the initiative and expressed his support for this approach and encouraged us to generalize it to spread the benefit, and this noble attitude of His Highness had the greatest impact on the company's board of directors and all its employees.
The second level of feedback came from a group of national companies and factories that expressed their great desire to be part of the initiative, and we are working on studying and evaluating many Saudi options and products related to the housing sector, in which we consider a set of criteria, mainly quality.
The second level of feedback came from a group of national companies and factories that expressed their great desire to be part of the initiative.
The third level of feedback came from large landowners in a number of cities in the Kingdom who expressed their desire to develop Saudi Homes projects on their land, which we are currently studying taking into account the price and location criteria.
The third level of feedback came from large landowners in a number of cities in the Kingdom who expressed their desire to develop Saudi Homes projects on their land.
While social reactions have been welcoming and enthusiastic about the initiative and its products, the marketing team receives dozens of inquiries daily and many reservation requests.
Social reactions have been welcoming and enthusiastic about the initiative and its products.
What about the Ministry of Housing?
In fact, we have not received anything from the Ministry of Housing and we have tried to set a date to present the Saudi Homes Initiative to the Minister of Housing and have not yet succeeded in this endeavor, but we are sure that the Ministry will support this initiative and popularize it because it benefits the nation, its society and its economy.
What about the Ministry of Housing?
What are your future plans for the initiative?
Currently, we will implement the Saudi Homes Initiative to produce 3196 different housing units around the Kingdom, the details of which will be announced soon. Our strategic goal is for the initiative to find the necessary resonance with the concerned government agencies and developers to become an axis of the housing policy in the Kingdom, leading to the production of one million housing units within 10 years.
What are your future plans regarding the initiative?
Million housing units, isn't that very ambitious?
We are very serious, and for this goal we have cooperated with Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University represented by the Faculty of Architecture and Planning to study the impact of implementing one million housing units on the Saudi economy as part of Vision 2030.
Million housing units.
The results indicated that a trend of this kind will inject about 128 billion riyals within five years and will generate annually about 512 thousand job opportunities in the construction sector and its affiliated activities. It will inject about 48 billion riyals annually into the Saudi economy during the post-implementation period.
This data is encouraging for all government and private sectors to work in an integrated manner to achieve this vital goal, which is consistent with the Ministry of Housing's data on the annual demand for housing in the Kingdom and the expected population growth in the future.
We just need the will and integration between sectors to realize a vital part of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and support the national economy and GDP, and if adopted on a national level, it will contribute to providing hundreds of thousands of job opportunities for young Saudi women and young men and achieve a huge growth leap in national industries and activities supporting the real estate development industry, which is one of the economic engines for dozens of fields, especially those fields in which small and medium enterprises practice their activities and these enterprises are the engine of economic growth in the Kingdom as they constitute 95% of the total number of commercial establishments in the Kingdom, and the growth of their business will lead to a greater contribution of the private sector to raise the GDP of the national economy.
<p class="p1Tamkeen Real Estate Investment and Development CompanyIn Brief
Tamkeen Real Estate Investment and Development Company was established in 2007.
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Tamkeen is active in innovating and developing advanced residential solutions in all regions of the Kingdom.
It has implemented several modern housing projects, the most important of which are (Noora Houses, Agha Houses, Shablixiat, White Houses).
The Ministry of Housing has entrusted it with the development of many of its projects in the Kingdom.
During the past ten years, it has introduced many distinguished development and financing initiatives.
