Saudi Minister of Housing: Our agreements with China are to compensate for the shortage of contractors in the local market

Saudi Arabia continues to sign agreements with Chinese developers to overcome the challenge of the shortage of contractors in the local market and overcome any other obstacles that may delay the delivery of residential projects, Saudi Minister of Municipalities and Housing Majed Al-Hogail told Al-Sharq. During the interview on the sidelines of a visit to China, he stressed that the huge growth observed by the Kingdom and the large national housing program requires cooperation with international companies to implement projects according to the established plans without delay, pointing out that housing laws, such as the white soil law, will create a launch for many projects in the Saudi capital that require a partnership between local developers and international companies to implement them. implement. The Kingdom levied fees on white lands to encourage owners to speed up their development. The decision was not issued alone, but rather came within a package of measures to reorganize the market and correct its conditions, which included the decision to stabilize rents in Riyadh, lift the moratorium on the development of more than 81 square kilometers of land in the north of Riyadh, and provide tens of thousands of residential plots annually at favorable prices for citizens. Read more: Saudi Minister of Housing: Stabilization of rents is important to control the market, and above all, to increase the property supply. Agreements with Chinese companies on signing with Chinese development companies. Al-Hogail noted that the ministry aims to attract the most prominent Chinese companies that have implemented projects that have left their mark at the global level. He said that during this visit, agreements were signed between the Saudi Housing Company and a number of Chinese companies to implement 24,000 housing units, provided that the previously announced target of building 100,000 units in partnership with China will be completed during the next year. Muhammad Al-Bati, CEO of the National Housing Company, said in an interview with Al-Sharq that the agreements signed during the visit are a continuation of the company’s plan to work with Chinese development companies to deliver this agreed number of housing units. He said that the company’s larger goal of delivering 300,000 housing units by the end of this year and 600,000 units by the end of 2030 requires broader cooperation that includes local companies and development companies from different countries of the world. Al-Bati pointed out that the volume of investments allocated by the company to pump housing units in all cities of the Kingdom, the largest percentage in Riyadh, in its first phase amounts to more than 220 billion riyals, while the land portfolio exceeds 400 billion riyals until the end of 2030. Saudi Arabia is looking forward to a comprehensive urban construction, including the modernization of urban structure and the modernization of urban construction and development of giant urban projects, to be ready to receive foreign visitors who plan to host them during the next few years, the government also aims to increase the percentage of Saudi citizens’ home ownership to 70% by 2030. This percentage reached 65.4% at the end of last year, according to the 2024 report, which shows the performance of vision indicators monitor.