Despite the massive number of real estate developments and infrastructure projects currently under way in Jeddah and the rest of Saudi Arabia, he said that without the government’s help in easing regulations, progress will continue to be,” very slow’ and fall behind other GCC countries in the region.

“If you look at the progress of infrastructure and real estate projects in Saudi Arabia, they are typically very slow due to regulations that are very time consuming. If you look at our projects here such as Jeddah Gate and our projects abroad such as Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the two projects both began in May 2005. Burj Khalifa was opened last month while Jeddah Gate is still under construction,” Al Kulli said, speaking as a panelist at Cityscape Jeddah Real Estate Summit on Saturday.

Al Kulli called for more dialogue with government and municipal officials and make efforts to find solutions to speeding up the regulatory process in order to meet project deadlines.

“We need to be able to speak as real estate developers to officials and come up with solutions to make sure that goals for Jeddah and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia are reached in the future,” Al Kulli said.

In addition, Al Kulli said, there are currently 70 percent of Saudis who do not own a home. Jeddah currently has a population of 3.7 million. Its young population continues to increase and its annual immigration growth of 18 percent will increase by 10 percent over the next 4-5 years.

“We must look at these numbers, encourage the private sector and work with regulators to make sure we can meet the goals of supplying affordable housing amid increasing demand,” he said, adding that housing must be made affordable to the majority middle class.

Al Kulli pointed out that despite being hit by the bursting of the real estate bubble in Dubai amid the global financial crisis in 2009, projects such as Dubai Tower and Dubai Mall became a reality.

“It is all about commitment and we must be committed to making the system easier to serve the goals and objectives of Jeddah and the Kingdom,” he added.

Agreeing to disagree, Saleh Malaikah, chairman of Ruwais International Company (Raysan Arabia), in charge of redeveloping the Ruwais district from a slum area into a residential and commercial center, said while there are delays tied to regulatory issues, the government in his opinion has been very supportive in expediting approval and in getting things done.

“The project we are undertaking with an area of 1.5 million square meters and total built up area of 5.6 million square meters is massive. We began the project in 2008 and to date are currently in the fifth phase of the project.

“In three years, we have completed surveys, done mapping, evaluated and obtained complete knowledge of the 2,500 properties in the district, and obtained an evaluation from the government and had it approved to go ahead with a master plan which has been facilitated by the government’s help,” Malaikah said.

He also stated that the project has just received a 10-year loan from PIF (Public Investment Fund) with a three-year grace period worth SR1.4 billion and also will receive funding from the General Organization of Social Insurance (GOSI) in the form of equity.

He said his company had already launched a campaign three weeks ago, asking residents of Ruwais to come forward to offer them cash in government compensation or to become shareholders in a joint stock company, which will turn his company into Raysan Arabia.

“We expect that the company will first offer property owners to become investors and then in about two weeks will obtain a private placement and then, hopefully in 2012 will make the company public,” Malaikah said.