A recent report issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) revealed that the residential new mortgages for individuals provided by, both banks and finance companies, have jumped three times in the first quarter of 2019, compared with the same quarter of last year, 2018. The number of residential mortgage contracts for individuals, during this quarter, reached 31,462 financing contracts with a total value of approximately 15 billion Riyals, achieving 221% growth in the number of contracts, and about 133% in the volume of financing compared with the same quarter of last year, 2018. The performance of real estate loans for individuals during the first quarter of 2019 has achieved a new upward trend. The total amount of financing in the first quarter is near to what has been offered in 2017. It is also equal to the number of contracts achieved in the first three quarters of 2018. This quarter is almost three times the number of contracts in the first quarter of 2018, and more than the double of the amount of funding for the same quarter of last year. According to SAMA's report, the number of new residential mortgage contracts offered by commercial banks and finance companies reached 12,148 contracts during March 2019, registering a growth rate of 206% compared to March 2018. The total value of contracts reached 5.5 Billion Riyals, an increase rate of 114% compared to same month. On the other hand, the number of contracts subsidized by the government through the housing support programs, provided by the Ministry of Housing and the Real Estate Development Fund, in March 2019 is 10,364 contracts with a total value of 4.4 billion Riyals, compared with 3.6 billion Riyals in February 2019. The percentage of residential support programs is about 85% of the total number of contracts and about 79% of the value of the funds in March 2019. SAMA reported that, the real estate loans for individuals jumped in February 2019, with more than three times that February of last year. The number of contracts for individuals during that month was more than 210% compared to the same month last year. In February 2019, 9736 new contracts signed with value more than 4.6 billion Riyals, all submitted by banks and financing companies. The Ministry of Housing has recently launched a government program to provide housing options for citizens, including facilitating finance with the support of the government by providing support to citizens to bear profits on mortgages, to contribute to raising the housing ownership rate to 70% by 2030. SAMA indicated in its previous reports that the total number of residential mortgage contracts for individuals in 2016 reached to 22,259 contracts worth 17,096 billion Riyals, and in 2017 about 30,833 contracts valued at 21,025 billion Riyals. In 2018, the total number of contracts reached 50,496 contracts worth 29.5 billion Riyals.
