There are several hopes pinned on housing projects to solve—or at least alleviate—the housing crisis, but when these projects are launched, there’s no doubt they’ll take years and years to be completed, and this is usually followed by delay after delay.
People are talking about who deserves it and who doesn’t. Rumors circulate here and there: one person says so-and-so’s name has come up, while another says, «My brother is finally going to get his villa…» Some may find a measure of credibility and joy in such talk, but in reality, *Umlaak Real Estate Newspaper* is on the ground, closely following real estate and housing developments as they unfold—both because of our expertise and our commitment to providing accurate information. So we took a tour of the Riyadh area—specifically around the airport—in search of the properties people were talking about, but unfortunately, we didn’t find them. so we returned to the «Housing« website once more to confirm exactly how to get there. Finally, we located the site and went the next day, traveling several kilometers northwest of the airport along a wide, paved road about 20 kilometers past Prince Salman Road.On your right are walls, and on your left is an empty desert. We looked for any buildings or villas that people were talking about (housing projects) until we reached the end of the dead-end street, but there was nothing,except for a group of companies working on infrastructure construction and land preparation. There’s no doubt that the location’s remoteness will have an impact on future economic and social services. The Riyadh housing project, as we see it, will take more than five years to complete. Does this mean that those eligible for housing must wait all this time?And would the idea of relocating them to a remote, isolated area be more beneficial than allowing them to remain in their current homes as tenants, where they are known to a large number of charitable people and where their livelihoods are supported through donations and financial assistance from benefactors?
We believe that the locations chosen by the “Housing Authority” for housing projects for eligible recipients in the Riyadh region are far removed from the city center—indeed, far removed from the nearest place where even basic services are available, aside from travel and tourism! Not to mention other basic services.
There are more than 620,000 citizens, as announced by the Ministry of Housing, who are eligible for housing out of nearly one million eligible individuals across all regions of the Kingdom. They have applied in the past, and a large number of them will end up in housing in remote areas far from service centers, which increases the burden on ordinary citizens with limited incomes. Does this mean that many of the Ministry of Housing’s units will become vacant, with their owners putting them up for rent while searching for other homes that offer basic services? We fear this may happen, as we are currently seeing in the market with residential units that have been ready for several years but whose owners have been unable to sell them. We will continue our discussion of this important topic in our upcoming issues.