JEDDAH — The Saudi real estate market is currently experiencing radical developments in an age of unprecedented growth that increases the potential for bridging the gap between supply and demand in the Kingdom. With this comes the end of this year's edition of the three-day Jeddah Urban Development and Real Estate Investment Event (Cityscape Jeddah 2015) held at the Jeddah Center for Events and Forums under the patronage of Prince Mishal Bin Majed Bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Jeddah. Visitors of the exhibition were able to see a variety of projects belonging to over 50 companies from the Kingdom and the Gulf, including Sumuo Real Estate Company, the Principal Sponsor of the event, and Ewaan Global Residential Company, the Founding Sponsor. During the event Ewaan Global Residential Company announced a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Housing. The partnership includes training developers in the mega projects that have been announced by the ministry recently which include expansion projects in the north of Jeddah, which was awarded to the company. The proposed project announced by the Ministry will soon begin and is situated just south of the King Abdullah Sports City, including 4,200 housing units and is expected to be completed after two years. In addition to this, the design of the project will be approved after one month from today and marketed to potential buyers and beneficiaries. This project will support over 100,000 people, which include the allocation of a number of units for selected individuals by the Ministry to benefit from the project. Sultan Sobhi Batterjee, President and Founder of Lifestyle Developers and member of the Real Estate Developers Committee in the Saudi Chamber of Commerce, said: “At Lifestyle Developers, we are continuously pushing to raise the standards of living by building quality communities focused on design and affordability that are accessible to young professionals across the Middle East. Industry exhibitions such as Cityscape Jeddah 2015 allow us to reach a wide audience of key decision makers in the region and explore future collaborations and opportunities.” Meanwhile, Cityscape Jeddah 2015 announced the winners of this year's vaunted Cityscape Awards on Monday. The commercial and multi-purpose award went to the Masharef Community Project being developed by Kinan Real Estate. Al-Zahra 568 project, which was developed by Lifestyle Developers, won the existing housing projects award. Ewaan's Al Fareeda residential project won the award for future residential project. Riyadh Al-Thaqafi, CEO of Ewaan, also expressed his happiness with the award. In the entertainment and hospitality category, the prize went to SEDCO's Galleria project. Khalid Al-Jamjoom, its CEO, said when finished, Galleria will not only be one of Jeddah's most prominent landmarks, but the place to be for style and fashion lovers, and will offer unsurpassed levels of hospitality in the GCC. Ewaan's Alfareeda also earned the company the award for the culture and community category. One of the most important projects at the event is the 1.6 million-square-meter Sumou Suburb, the first stage of the Makkah Gateway Development Project. The project, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, is being developed through a strategic partnership between Makkah Gateway and Sumou Holding, and is scheduled to be completed in 11 stages over five years. The Sumou Suburb comprises some 6,000 apartments and villas of various sizes and stunning designs. There will be commercial, administrative and residential structures along the project's three main roads, in addition to 11 mosques and a number of schools and medical facilities, making it a comprehensive community that will provide a great lifestyle for Saudis. The first stage of the project is scheduled to commence in three months, for a scheduled finish in 2020. Infrastructure and road work for the first stage is already underway. The Jeddah Real Estate Workshops have so far featured speakers such as, Riyadh Al-Thaqafi, CEO of Ewaan, the Founding Sponsor of Cityscape Jeddah, who reviewed government initiatives that would shore up the country's real estate industry. He called upon the Ministry of Housing to have a greater regulatory role, and upon the government to launch more initiatives that would help other sectors related to real estate. He reiterated the importance of the public and private sectors working together to encourage developers to expedite their projects to meet the growing demand for residential and commercial projects. — SG
