Land crunch: Saudi families learn to live in apartments

JEDDAH: It seems that many Saudi families are gradually coming to terms with the new reality of living in apartments, as building villas is not possible due to shortage of appropriate land.
With the increasing display of housing units by the Ministry of Housing, in partnership with developers, to provide vertical housing products, which includes apartments ranging from 180 to 220 square meters, it is expected that this form of construction will underline the trend across regions of the Kingdom. This comes in view of the residential land crisis faced by the Ministry of Housing and the doubling of prices without taking into consideration the financial abilities of many people.
For decades now, apartments remained a temporary accommodation for Saudi families, pending the move to a more spacious house with mini-garden and a garage for the family cars. But this pattern of social culture in the Kingdom is diminishing slowly.
For over four years, the Housing Ministry, with its huge financial budget amounting to SR25 billion, could not achieve the aspirations of citizens and their requirements. Until now, the ministry managed to deliver only 4,000 residential units to entitled citizens in Jazan, Qasim and Madinah.
There are 43 housing projects under implementation by the ministry, suffering delays as some of the infrastructure projects are not yet completed yet.
Earlier this year, the Housing Ministry started a partnership with the private sector to market housing products via the “Eskan” online portal of the ministry.
A number of exhibitions in Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Abha and Madinah have been held but reflect the painful reality that the ministry is finding it difficult to deliver housing products to citizens in view of the shortfall in land suitable for construction, especially in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.