Saudi housing initiative promotes social stability

An affordable housing initiative to put low-income Saudi youth and families on the path to home ownership has widespread benefits that include enhanced national security, experts told Al-Mashareq.

Youth who receive this type of government support are less susceptible to financial enticement by extremists or to engage in civic unrest, they said.

Through the programme, the Ministry of Housing, in co-operation with the Real Estate Development Fund, has been granting housing units, plots of land and easy-term housing loans to low income citizens.

"The distribution of land plots allocated for housing is part of a housing programme announced in late 2017," Munsif al-Baridi, a housing programme applications manager, told Al-Mashareq.

Housing, land and loans

The programme calls for the distribution of 300,000 housing units in 2018, including 125,000 units for sale, 75,000 plots of land allocated free of charge for residential construction and 100,000 easy-term bank loans, al-Baridi said.

So far this year, the programme has distributed 33,137 plots of land, with 41,863 remaining to be distributed by the end of the year, he said.

The part of the programme that deals with the land allocations "is mainly directed at limited and low-income earners, and the initial thrust is directed at the neediest families, low-income families and youth", al-Baridi said.

The plots range in size from 500 to 800 square metres, while the apartments vary in size and are allocated according to the number of occupants, but are no smaller than 120 square metres.

Youth who obtain a plot of land through the programme are also eligible for long-term financing, he said.

The programme has been rolled out in all regions of the kingdom, with the most recent distribution process covering the areas of Medina, Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, al-Sharqiyah province, Jazzan, Hail and the northern border, he said.

Meeting basic needs

Direct governmental attention to the citizen's basic needs is in the interest of the citizen and of the kingdom as a whole, said Fadel al-Hindi, a supervisor at King Abdulaziz University's Centre for Social and Humanities Research.

The real estate and housing facilities being offered provide relief for many people, especially the young, he told Al-Mashareq, noting that securing housing is a fundamental concern that can present an obstacle in their lives.

"If a youth is provided with a part of the housing or land plot allocated for him, his thinking would turn to practical matters to secure the rest of his needs and lead a decent normal life," al-Hindi said.

"But if the doors remain closed, the youth would be susceptible to a sense of failure and frustration, which would allow extremist groups to make ideological incursions."

The distribution of plots of land will help to "revitalize the real estate sector in the kingdom after a period of relative stagnation", said Mohsen al-Qahtani, a lecturer at Umm al-Qura University's faculty of economics.

"Such programmes provide prefabricated homes with financing plans that suit everyone through installments based on the person’s financial ability to pay," he said.

Fostering economic growth

Most youth preparing to get married or families who rent their residences do not have enough savings to buy land and also build a house, al-Qahtani said.

Given this situation, granting plots of land on the condition that construction is completed within a certain time period will stimulate activity in the construction sector, he said.

Construction companies, cement companies and factories will benefit from this activity, he said, which also will create jobs in the housing sector.

"The comprehensive plan to tackle the problem of extremism will not and cannot be complete without paying attention to the internal financial aspect and working to provide relief to citizens, at least to the minimum level needed for living a decent life," al-Qahtani said.

"This is what Saudi government institutions are doing," he added.