Arab News, Sunday, Jul 4, 2021 | Zul Qaadah 23, 1442
KSA residential sales volumes recover to pre-pandemic levels
Saudi Arabia:
Residential sales volumes in
Saudi Arabia have recovered to pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) levels, reaching their
highest level for five years, according to a new industry report.
Rising mortgage rates have also helped the
government reach its homeownership targets as part of Vision 2030.
Faisal Durrani, head of Middle East Research at
Knight Frank, said in a statement: “With homeownership at 60 percent at present,
the government has already surpassed its 2020 target by 8 percent and is well on
course for achieving 70 percent homeownership by 2030.”
“At 115,000 transactions, sales volumes between
January and May are on par with the same period in 2019 and are 49 percent
higher than January to May 2018. Homebuyers and lenders are clearly feeling more
confident as the post-COVID recovery starts to bed in,” Durrani added.
A total of 38,285 mortgages were issued for the
purchase of villas and townhouses in the first quarter of 2021, worth a total of
SR48 billion ($12.8 billion).
The Sakani initiative was launched in 2017 to
boost home ownership through a landmark housing allocation program, which
benefitted 1.1 million families. The Wafi program monitors and manages off-plan
sales.
The Kingdom also aims to add more than 500,000
units to Riyadh’s housing stock by the year 2030, Durrani said: “That is just
100,000 units less than Dubai’s total current housing stock, (and) means Saudi
nationals are able to get on the housing ladder in record numbers.”
Last week, the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co.
(SRC), the mortgage finance giant owned by the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund,
the Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced it had bought a “significant
portion” of the housing finance portfolio owned by Arab National Bank (ANB).
According to an SRC statement, the agreement will
“provide liquidity to ANB, which in turn provides greater homeownership
opportunities for more than 2 million of the bank’s customers.”