SAUDI citizens have been facing the problem of housing for many years. Many citizens do not own homes. Rents are exhausting their budgets every month. There are no clear statistics on how many people do not own homes. Some statistics said 60 percent of Saudis do not own homes while a German press agency said that 70 percent of Saudis do not own homes. One thing is for sure: the pain and suffering is increasing while the population is also increasing. Those who managed to own homes managed to do so through taking loans and credit. The Saudi government was serious about fixing this problem or at least ease the pain and suffering of people. The government established an independent body for housing and then transformed it into a ministry, and injected billions of riyals to it. Until now people do not see any meaningful outcome from the Ministry of Housing except more empty promises. The common excuse is that there is not enough land. The real problem is with the ministry itself. The problem is becoming enormous and we need immediate solutions. A very quick solution that could put an end to this problem or at least ease the pain and suffering of people is a suitable housing allowance for government employees and retirees. A great percentage of people will benefit from it.
Are we going to see such solution in the near future? Or should we wait for the never ending large scale housing projects to be finished?
