JEDDAH, 1 July 2004 — The internationally successful space-share program has come to Saudi Arabia. It is being introduced to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah where there is a continuous flow of pilgrims alongside regular visits of locals. This has triggered an enormous demand on facilities, especially housing units close to the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. Rising demand has resulted in real estate prices booming to record heights.

“Plots of land in both cities have become the most expensive in the world reaching up to SR350,000 per square meter,” Essam Awad, CEO and president of Manazel Al-Haramain, said at the launch of the company’s groundbreaking program, at a press conference here on Tuesday night.

The program offers a Shariah-compliant solution for Muslims around the world to own a second home in one of the two cities. Combining price, convenience, location and varied options together with five-star utilities and services, the program will allow the sale and trading of 5,645 housing units that will accommodate about 260,000 families year-round for specific periods of time at a fixed price.

“This fully legalized program will help attract more inward investments and eventually lead to providing innovative accommodation solutions in the two cities,” Awad added.

Each unit can be purchased by the head leaseholder in multiples of seven days for a period of 20 years and be used or given away as a gift. Each unit has a potential maximum letting period of 48 weeks, for instance, in any given Hijrah year with the balance used as a maintenance period spread throughout the year. This allows the unit to be shared by as many as 48 members, thus maximizing the use of space.

“Program members need not make any prior reservation arrangements before their regular entitlement time. They just arrive and occupy the place,” said Manazel Al-Haramain Chairman Ziad Sharif.

“Anticipated to expand and reach 12,000 units in the next three years, the program will assist members from outside the Kingdom to obtain the entry visa from all Saudi diplomatic missions abroad when their entitlements fall due,” he said.

The program encompasses Al-Shurfa residential and commercial tower in Makkah overlooking the Grand Mosque and three other towers — Al-Haram, Al-Qeblah and Al-Sabaq Centers in Madinah. The four projects are currently under construction.

Studies conducted by AC Nielsen, a marketing research consultancy, have shown that over 70 percent of visitors to the two holy cities stay for around a week, and the majority of residential unit’s members invest a lot of money in owning their homes in both cities for short stays only. This has a negative impact on the economy and tourism.

Both Sharif and Awad said the space-share concept had been introduced to the Kingdom for the first time and approved by key Muslim scholars to maximize the cost-efficiency of land use and provide new accommodation solutions to the majority of Muslims worldwide.

“Unlike all other space-share solutions in the Kingdom, our program is not just a collection of luxurious residential units but also a comprehensive package of quality services provided by world’s providers of space share opportunities,” Awad said.

Manazel Al-Haramain’s business partners include RCI, a global leader in vacation property exchange, AC Nielsen, Swicorp, an independent investment banking firm, Ernst&Young, a global leader in professional services, and Khabeer Financial Consultants among others.