His Excellency Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, Minister of Housing, handed over residential plots to a number of beneficiaries of the “Sakani” program in the Asir region, as part of the ongoing effort to deliver ready-to-move-in villas and plots across all regions of the Kingdom. During his visit to the Asir region, His Excellency inspected the Ministry’s projects and met with the implementing agencies and their staff, emphasizing the need to ensure their completion in accordance with the specified deadlines and quality standards so that citizens can benefit from them.
During the tour, His Excellency visited the Abha Housing Project for residential units under construction—sold “off-plan”—which had been pre-allocated and offers approximately 1,513 diverse residential units, for which reservations were completed last November. He also visited the Khamis Mushait Governorate housing project, which includes approximately 7,000 villas and apartments under construction, for which the first phase of reservations has already been completed. Meanwhile, infrastructure work is being integrated into both projects, and a number of sites have been designated for service facilities.
His Excellency explained that the total allocation during the first and second phases of the “Sakani” program for the Asir region through last April amounts to 31,684 housing options and financing packages, meeting approximately 44% of the demand in the region. This includes 8,793 housing units under construction (off-plan sales), in addition to 9,427 subsidized mortgage loans from the Real Estate Development Fund in partnership with banks and financial institutions, and 13,464 plots of land provided free of charge to beneficiaries, with work underway to complete the free land development projects in the region according to the planned phases of completion. He emphasized that allocations in the Asir region will continue through future phases of the “Sakani” program to meet the demand for housing support and provide various options for beneficiaries.
His Excellency the Minister of Housing affirmed the Ministry’s commitment to providing all appropriate housing and financing options for citizens benefiting from housing support in all regions and cities of the Kingdom, noting that 16 government agencies are coordinating their efforts through the housing program launched last February, which aims to serve citizens and facilitate access to suitable housing in order to raise the homeownership rate to 60% by 2020, and reaching 70% by 2030.
