An academic noted that, over the past decades, the local real estate sector has been unable to make significant progress in enabling citizens to own housing units.<\/p>\n
The academic did not deny the increase in growth in the housing sector in recent years, noting that the number of permits for residential construction has exceeded 36,000 per year.<\/p>\n
However, he cited studies that confirmed the Kingdom\u2019s need for up to three million new housing units, in addition to one million units to replace the current housing stock over the next two decades.<\/p>\n
In his research paper titled \u201cEmpowering Saudi Families to Own Homes\u201d\u2014a copy of which was obtained by *Al-Riyadh*\u2014the scholar attributed the rapid rise in housing demand to steady population growth at a rate of (2.4% annually), particularly among younger age groups, as well as migration from villages to cities, an increase in the influx of expatriates, and a decline in the average household size. .<\/p>\n
Dr. Raed bin Mansour Al-Dakhil, a faculty member at the College of Architecture and Planning at King Saud University, revealed that Saudi families\u2019 ability to purchase a residential unit has declined significantly over the past four decades, citing recent studies that show Saudi households spend, on average, up to 45% of their income to cover the cost of home ownership, compared to a ratio ranging from 20 to 30% in developed countries.<\/p>\n
Al-Dakhil said that when reviewing the occupancy rate of the current housing stock, which exceeds 92%, it is evident that the demand gap in major cities reaches 26%, which confirms the existence of good opportunities in residential projects targeting middle-income earners in major cities, which account for 75% of the opportunities currently available.<\/p>\n
He added that, based on these figures, the average annual increase in demand exceeds 175,000 housing units and more than 125 million square meters of undeveloped land.<\/p>\n
Al-Dakhil pointed out that the gap between demand and the supply of housing units in the market varies depending on the size of the cities; in major cities, the gap exceeds 26%, while this figure is lower in medium-sized and small cities, with the current gap estimated at 400,000 housing units; current projections indicate that the gap is expected to increase to one million units within three years.<\/p>\n
Al-Dakhil outlined solutions for establishing a real estate industry on solid foundations through a genuine partnership between the public and private sectors and charitable organizations, with the aim of creating an attractive investment environment that safeguards the rights of both investors and beneficiaries through appropriate legislation and mechanisms to support andencourage developers, financiers, and the construction industry\u2014all of whom are capable of completing a large number of housing projects that align with the needs and means of beneficiaries and provide the services and facilities necessary for a healthy, dignified, and secure life.<\/p>\n
He added that it is essential to lay the right foundations, contribute to the development of regulations and legislation governing the Saudi real estate market, and build a clear future for this market that attracts investors, based on scientific, professional, and expert principles.<\/p>\n
Dr. Al-Dakhil added that the main obstacles preventing citizens from owning housing units fall into three main categories: regulatory, social, and economic.<\/p>\n
He said that the regulatory obstacles include delays in the adoption and implementation of the legislative and regulatory framework, a comprehensive housing plan, the development of a land grant program for citizens, the development of building and planning regulations, land subdivision and parceling, and the implementation of the Saudi code appropriate forthe needs of Saudi families.<\/p>\n
As for social obstacles, these include\u2014as mentioned in the study\u2014 in the fact that most citizens prefer to live in major cities, choose housing units that are excessively large, opt for individual development, select costly traditional methods of construction and finishing, disregard operating and maintenance costs, and lack public awareness of the importance of saving.<\/p>\n
Economic obstacles include a scarcity of financing resources, the diminished role of the Real Estate Development Fund, a shortage of liquidity, investors\u2019 insistence on economic feasibility studies, a lack of coordination, delays caused by service providers, and the weak capabilities and capacity of technical support services for the sector, as well asthe stagnation of the development industry, delays in promoting specialized companies, development companies\u2019 neglect of large segments of the population with genuine needs, and the lack of a clear vision and institutional framework in the construction industry.<\/p>\n
Al-Dakhil noted that the study\u2019s participants emphasized that developers and investors in the Saudi market are driven by a desire for empowerment, given the promising opportunities for profitability, and that efforts are underway to identify the appropriate model that will achieve this empowerment.<\/p>\n
He explained that the participants identified that developers contribute to empowerment through a range of roles, the most important of which are improving land-use efficiency, creating architectural designs that align with needs and feasibility, and developing designs for structural and electromechanical engineering systems. In addition, developers should standardize innovative architectural components, develop mechanisms for managing resources and materials, curb speculation on undeveloped land, work toward market stability, utilize appropriate means of advocacy and lobbying, and collaborate with relevant authorities to enact, develop, and implement legislation and regulations, such as mortgage systems, real property registration, and real estate financing.
\n(Riyadh)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> Minutes<\/span><\/span>An academic confirmed that the local real estate sector has been unable, over the past decades, to make significant progress in enabling citizens to own housing units. The academic did not deny the growth in the housing sector in recent years, as the number of permits for residential construction has exceeded 36,000 annually. However, he cited studies that confirmed the Kingdom\u2019s need for up to \u2026 Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-residential"],"acf":{"amlak_post_excerpt":"","amlak_post_excerpt_source":{"label":"Amlak post excerpt","type":"text","formatted_value":""}},"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","trp-custom-language-flag":"","event-thumbnail":"","event-medium":"","event-large":"","event-hero":""},"author_info":{"info":["\u0627\u0645\u0644\u0627\u0643 \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0642\u0627\u0631\u064a\u0629"]},"category_info":"\u0633\u0643\u0646\u064a<\/a>","tag_info":"\u0633\u0643\u0646\u064a","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}