RIYADH, 30 March 2004 — A severe housing shortage looms in Riyadh, according to Minister of Planning and Economy Dr. Khaled Al-Gosaibi.

The minister said there will be a shortage of 270,000 housing units by the end of the Seventh Five-Year Plan ending next year.

Al-Gosaibi said the Saudi Real Estate Development Fund granted loans worth SR135 billion for the construction of housing units.

“The demand will continue to rise in future, since 60 percent of the Saudi population is under 20,” he said.

The capital is projected to become the first mega-city in the Gulf within a decade.

The minister was speaking at the second symposium on housing inaugurated by Prince Sattam, deputy governor of Riyadh, at the King Fahd Cultural Center on Sunday night.

The occasion was to honor the winners of an international competition to design sustainable and affordable housing appropriate to the climatic conditions of the country.

The “Modern Saudi House” competition was organized by the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) last year, attracting some 1,365 entries from 61 countries, 16 of them Arab.

On behalf of ADA, Dr. Abdullatif Al-Sheikh, its president, expressed hope that the deliberations would benefit a future vision for housing in the Kingdom.

Of the competitors, 815 were professional organizations and 550 students of architecture.

The participants were asked to design a house for a seven-member family to submit designs for an individual house for a Saudi family consisting of seven members on a site measuring 325 square meters for a 22-unit compound north of Riyadh.

Designs should be affordable, sustainable, improve household quality and respond to environmental, economic and social needs.

Among the professionals, Luca Donner from Italy took first prize, Matthias Schoberth, a UK-based architect took second, and Egyptian Mukhtar Al-Rafai took third. SR525,000 was distributed among the winners — SR200,000 for the first prize-winning entry, SR150,000 for the second prize; and SR100,000 for the third prize.

In the student category, Patrick Stremling from Karlruhe University in Germany came first, Abdullah Ali Al-Shamsi from the American University in Sharjah took second, and his fellow student Loubna Al-Zaliq third.