IT seems the housing problem in our country is getting worse with the passage of time. The economic and social warnings issued by experts did not encourage the Housing Ministry to make any significant move to solve the problem. I had called upon the Housing Ministry through this column sometime ago to take care of this vital sector in order to ensure stability for citizens by organizing the market and providing suitable housing facilities to them. Today I am reminding the ministry once again as a result of people's angry reactions and grumblings toward its recent decisions that do not augur a bright future. We were surprised to hear an announcement last week that the Real Estate Development Fund will temporarily stop giving loans. The fund's board of directors is chaired by the minister of housing. The suspended loans included those already approved by the fund's board. Many beneficiaries wanted to keep the loan in the fund to benefit from market recovery. About 110,000 loan allocations have been frozen with the permission of applicants as they were unable to build a house with the allotted amount of SR500,000 in the disorganized market. The fund also announced that the frozen loans as well as 425 new loans will be brought under specific categories and will be distributed as per the requirements of the beneficiaries. The fund did not give any further details. Real estate loans are the acquired right of all citizens in the country since the fund's formation. It has never differentiated between the rich and poor and I am afraid the new mechanism would upset the plans of many deserving citizens. On the same day it has been decided to reduce the first installment of the housing loans by banks from 30 to 15 percent. Even though there is a difference of opinion about this decision, I consider it as a positive one if the ministry steps in to regulate the market and contain rising real estate prices, so that citizens can make use of the loans to build homes without much difficulty. Citizens have not received from the Housing Ministry and its 30 consultants what they required. Although the ministry was formed to serve citizens its services were not up to their expectations, despite the unlimited support it received from the Saudi leadership who wanted a quick solution for the housing problem. I take this opportunity to call upon the ministry to exert greater efforts to end the housing crisis as more and more people are in need of homes to have a happy and stable life.
