The expo, with carries the theme of “Toward a Promising Future of Makkah,” will offer solutions for the current dearth of residential facilities in the holy city and explore new avenues to finance several ongoing residential projects.

About 50 leading real estate and construction companies are expected to take part in the five-day event, held at Umm Al-Qura Exhibition Hall in Al-Rosaifa district. Deals worth millions of riyals are expected to be concluded on the sidelines of the event.

Amer Al-Thamer, director general of the organizing company Sokook Al-Mustaqbal, said the exhibition is being organized to help develop Makkah into a highly advanced city while maintaining its Islamic character and reputation as Islam’s holiest location.

He described the exhibition as one of the major economic events in Makkah, and the only of its kind for the booming real estate sector.

“Deals and contracts worth about SR2 billion were concluded on the sidelines of the first exhibition last year. We hope there will be a remarkable increase in the volume of deals signed this year,” he said.

According to Al-Thamer, the mega development projects in the central area around the Grand Mosque and demolition of more than 1,000 properties for its largest ever expansion offer a big incentive for real estate investors.

“Owners of these properties have already received over SR40 billion in compensation after expropriation of their properties. About 70 percent of these owners, who have not invested in the massive development projects in the Haram central area, have to find alternative residential facilities,” he said.

Al-Thamer said these mega projects formed part of the government’s efforts to improve housing and prayer facilities for the millions of pilgrims who come for Haj and Umrah from all over the world.

“We are keen to fulfill the vision of Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal to make Makkah one of the most beautiful, clean, civilized and advanced cities in the world. The real estate and construction sector in Makkah will exert all efforts to realize this dream within 10 years,” he said.

He added that the exhibition would serve as an impetus to the ongoing construction boom in the holy city.

“There are multi-billion riyal projects such as Haramain Railway, Makkah monorail, massive plans to develop random districts and neighborhoods as well as housing projects for the poor,” he said.

He claimed that all these projects offered golden opportunities for local investors to make safe and sustained investments.