100 Days of King Salman’s Reign: The Real Estate Development Fund Meets the Leadership’s Aspirations
The Real Estate Development Fund is considered the right-hand partner of the Ministry of Housing and was established in 1974 – 1394 AH – to provide real estate lending services on favorable, fair, and professional terms to Saudi citizens within an integrated system that relies on advanced technologies and effective cooperation with all relevant government agencies, The Real Estate Development Fund’s services cover more than 3,976 cities and villages throughout the Kingdom. Since its establishment, the Fund has aimed to promote home ownership for all citizens and to meet their needs and aspirations by helping to improve the quality of life in society and develop high-quality housing.
In less than 100 days since the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz —may God preserve him—assumed the reins of power, he directed that urgent solutions be found to provide suitable housing for citizens. In his first official speech, he allocated 20 billion riyals to address the infrastructure of housing developments and connect them to basic services, He established the Council for Economic Development to serve as the apex of government service agencies and revitalized the Ministry of Housing through vital decisions, the most recent of which was the appointment of Dr. Essam bin Saad bin Saeed as Minister of Housing and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Development Fund. This spurred the Fund to pursue to realize the leadership’s aspirations for effective solutions to the lending process. Within less than three months, the Ministry issued a number of decisions that facilitate financing for citizens and increase the Fund’s flexibility in dealing with beneficiaries, in order to align with the strategies adopted by the Ministry within the first 100 days of the reign of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman, particularly the partnership established by the Ministry of Housing with the private sector. As a result, the Real Estate Development Fund achieved significant gains by approving three rounds of loans, comprising 19,635 loans for the construction of 23,922 housing units with a total value exceeding 9,967 million riyals (nine billion, nine hundred sixty-seven million riyals). This is in addition to the decisions it adopted during this period, particularly following the appointment of Dr. Essam bin Saad bin Saeed as Minister of Housing and, consequently, Chairman of the Fund’s Board of Directors.
