Dr. Mahmoud Ibrahim Al-Douaan Al-Madinah SAUDIS are suffering from insufficient housing units, high rent and expensive real estate. If one is lucky enough to find a suitable land, he still will have to bear with the skyrocketing cost of construction. The dream of owning his own house have become a citizen's main concern. Our compassionate father and great leader, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, always feels the needs of his subjects, shares their predicament with them and reacts positively to their many issues. He has allocated SR250 billion for the construction of 500,000 housing units over the coming five years. He has also instructed that the loans extended by the Real Estate Development Fund be increased to SR500,000 from SR300,000 so as to enable the citizens have their own private homes. A citizen has not properly benefited from this mortgage or real estate financing. He did not get funds to build a house on his own land to live in it or rent it. Through the provision of quick financing many housing units would be built, thereby bridging the persisting housing gap. Due to lack of financing, this problem may continue till infinity. There is a shortage of 1.65 million housing units in the Kingdom. About 70 percent of Saudis do not have their own houses. To bridge this gap, the King's order to construct 500,000 housing units can solve a large part of the problem but cannot radically resolve it. It is a step in the right direction. We need at least about 275,000 housing units every year to be able to achieve the aspirations of the King during the next five years. How can we achieve this difficult target in the absence of suitable financing? What will we do with the billions of riyals the government has allocated to facilitate the lives of the citizens if they were not used properly? Why do we accumulate billions of riyals for a certain year only to be pushed for the next year without meeting even five percent of the citizens' needs? To whom do we attribute this amazing red tape? Banks from Gulf countries have started making headway into the Kingdom, which is a promising market. These banks have started extending loans to Saudis ranging from SR5 million to SR10 million at an interest of one percent only. Why can't our commercial banks, which too have huge assets, take such an initiative? Our banks can work with the concerned lending authorities to guarantee that their loans will be repaid with the required interest similar to the personal loans they are now offering. Real estate financing can be extended in a single day with the government bearing the interest rate. Such measures will expedite the process of building houses and thereby achieving the dream of King Abdullah of a house for every citizen. I hope that the Ministry of Finance will ease financing regulations enabling every citizen to get the loan he needs. There is no need for delay in extending loans. This delay has become a source of worry for the citizens and will further augment the housing problem.
