People in all corners of the globe dream of having two things: A house and a job. The dream of Saudi citizens is the same. The government said that it would enable millions of its citizens to own their houses.
The government promised, but it dragged its feet. Why doesn’t it spend the budget it promised, having only spent SR 3 billion of the SR 66 billion it allocated?
The happiest are the people who don’t know their governments or their governments don’t know them. But now this is impossible. In the past, peasants and shepherds were able to live independently. Today, the government has a prime role in citizens’ lives, therefore, it is natural for the government to become responsible and address the people’s needs and dreams.
The housing projects are developmental, economic and social, and, of course, political. If the government was serious, the housing projects would have been one of the biggest in the world. There are two choices: To give the Saudi citizen the money or to give him the key. The best thing is to give citizens SR 500,000 each and leave him manage his affairs, while ensuring control of construction material prices. The bad choice is for the government to start construction.
Thirty years ago there was a construction boom when every Saudi citizen built his house, taking advantage of interest-free government loans, this is how most of the new cities were built. Government constructions were seen a failure.
Things will not change, even if we borrow from the Chinese and Irish experiments or bring international companies and pay them huge amounts of money.
The house with its intricate details is subject to personal choices and government engineers cannot force their tastes on people.
After the building is complete and the house delivered to the best standards, government agencies will still face a dilemma. They will be blamed every time a tap breaks down or water seeps from the roof.
Among the positive decisions are the ones that allow loan seekers to buy pre-built houses. They can also restrict those who trade with government loans and prevent them from selling, which was what Abu Dhabi did because houses are made to be lived in.
The government should learn from what happened elsewhere. Socialist methods, tried to foster the needs of people with the excuse that they are more compassionate and have more justice, did not work. They used to provide gas and electricity for the people, bake their bread, sell them cars and build their houses. But all these failed because its services were accompanied with favoritism, corruption and inefficiency. They contradict with the human wish of free choice. It is best to allow people to build while facilitating the market and laws, and prevent exploitation and more control over prices.
There are a number of reasonable questions contradictory to the idea of leaving citizens to manage their own homes after getting the loan.
The truth is the government apparatuses are the reason for price hikes, they can ban vertical buildings in cities and at the same allow huge land owners to sleep in them. They don’t pay taxes or fees, forcing people to buy more land and prices keep going up. All excuses for preventing vertical buildings are weak and all excuses for not going after land merchants are weak.
The country has a golden opportunity to rearrange its affairs in a complete and connected way. They have railway lines that can be a compass, lessening distances and build new areas alongside the railway line.
They can close down all areas alongside the promised railway line, inside or outside cities, and allocate loans. During the years of the railway construction they should build the infrastructure for water, electricity and give loans and distribute land to remote areas. In 30 years these will become populated cities. But the state should leave people to manage the building of their homes and not play the role of father and be faced with complaints.
