day Young Business Exhibition that ended on Oct. 14 was successful in showcasing a variety of entrepreneurship endeavors of Saudi youth. One outstanding booth showcased a creative project by Jumara Company for creative real estate solutions, owned by Shruooq Al-Suleiman, a young Saudi woman. The Saudi Gazette interviewed her on Thursday, Oct. 13, to learn more about Juamara Company's project of smart housing. Q. Can you tell us your story of being one of the few Saudi women in the world of real estate? A. Yes, indeed it was a very big challenge for me to cruise through this market, which, in the Kingdom, is known as the “World of Men”. Being involved in the real estate and construction field, as a Saudi female, was a brave move to make. However, I chose this type of business because I already had a vision instilled in my mind that any kind of business here in the Kingdom or outside cannot be perfectly successful if it is only run and operated by one gender. Perhaps the real estate market here can develop further and get more creative when women are brave enough to enter this world of business. I came up with the Jumara concept to prove that we can do more in the real estate market than just deal with traditional trade of houses, apartments and the exchange of properties. Q. What are the main aspects of your new “smart houses” project? A. First of all, I would like to clarify that our project is not only about smart homes or smart residence, it is meant to be a “smart community” that targets the middle-income group. Smart housing, as the name implies, aims at providing a housing unit affordable by the middle-class. It will respond to the local climate and prove to be efficient in saving money. Moreover, we intend to introduce more green and ecological houses and sustainable homes by providing alternative power solutions and by reducing the use of traditional power resources as much as possible. The entire project comprises four main buildings with total number of 40 units on an area of around 2,250 square meters on Hera Street near King Road. The unit sizes range from 157 square meters up to 400. There are some units of duplex style located at the upper level. Q. How much is the total cost of the project and how much of it has been accomplished so far? A. The total cost of our project is estimated at SR50 million and we are now in the second phase of the project and have completed around 25-30 percent of it. Q. Can you tell us briefly about some salient features of the smart houses and the services offered with each unit? How much will each unit be sold for after the completion of the project? A. As I said earlier, this project is not about selling units for everyone and anyone. Our idea is to build a small community with a new concept of housing. It is only for people who appreciate living in a smart community. This community has creative services and smart solutions like the overall smart power system that allows the resident to control the power in his unit from his mobile or iPhone. Each building is provided with roof gardens, recreation centers, ballroom, health center and spa, and babysitting and kindergarten services. We also designed each unit in a way that it can be expandable. For example the 156-square-meter unit can be expanded up to 300 square meters in the future if needed. The unit's prices vary according to the location. The cheapest one of the 156-square-meter will cost around SR800,000, which I think is very reasonable. __
