The 8th Jeddah International Real Estate, Finance and Housing Exhibition (JIREX2010) opened here Monday. Khaled Aqeel, Deputy Mayor of Jeddah, opened the five-day event which brings together more than 60 real estate and investment companies. He said the building of new housing units in Jeddah will create a balance between supply and demand. Over the coming week the Jeddah municipality will announce new residential developments, he said. The deputy mayor said that the participation of local banks in providing mortgages will help Saudis get their own houses. “Although the whole world is suffering from the global financial crisis, the real estate market in Jeddah is doing fine,” he said. Ahmad Al-Muhandis, the exhibition organizer and general director of JIREX2010, said that the financial crisis has resulted in fewer participants. However there were more participants from the Gulf region and from Yemen. According to Jeddah's strategic plan, there is a shortage of 283 housing units. There is an increasing demand for housing in Jeddah because of the large number of expatriate workers in the city and the inflow of people from all over the Kingdom. Five million new housing units are needed in the Kingdom by the end of this year.
