The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) revealed that the volume of new residential mortgages for individuals provided by banks and institutions has reached an outstanding record with more than 21,000 in October 2019. SAMA, in its recent monthly report, stated that the number of contracts jumped 250% with more than 15,000 contracts, compared to 3,406 contracts in October 2018. The new residential loans in October 2019 grew 172% based on year on year by SR9.3 billion, compared to about SR3 billion in October 2018. This increase is about SR6 billion for new loans this month, which is about 30% compared to September 2019. The SAMA report explained that the total number of individual's mortgage grew to 135,368 contracts with SR60 billion to the end of October 2019, while at the same period last year, 2018, it reached 37,301 contracts with SR22,334 billion. This growth exceeded 263% in the number of contracts and about 170% in the volume of loans. The report points out that, 94% of individual real estate contracts concluded in October 2019 through commercial banks, while about 7% were offered by finance companies. In October, the volume of financing villas is the largest proportion by SR7.5 billion, which is 81% of total mortgages, while apartments is 12% with SR1.2 billion, purchasing land 7% with a value of SR627 million. Statistics show that in October 2019, the number of subsidized contracts supported by governmental housing programs is 19,723 contracts, which is more than 91% of the total contracts. The total value of these contracts is more than SR8.1 billion, about 87% of the total value for contracts in October 2019. According to the SAMA report, the total number of residential mortgage contracts offered to individuals by the end of 2018 amounted 50,496 contracts with value of SR29.5 billion, and in 2017 about 30,833 contracts with value of SR21,025 billion, while in 2016 it was about 22,259 mortgage contracts worth SR17,096 billion. — SG
