Problems often start when citizens rush to buy villas and residential units after being lured by attractive advertisements in local newspapers. Most of these villas are not spacious enough to accommodate all members of the family. More seriously, they often provide inadequate ventilation in addition to being defective in terms of design. Despite these shortcomings, the villas cost SR1 million or more each. The purchasing power of most buyers is substantially low, which leaves them with no option but to take loans from local banks and financial firms.

According to a report in Al-Riyadh newspaper, it can take about two decades for the owners of these villas to clear their financial liabilities.

Ahmad Al-Zaylai, member of the Shoura Council, noted that there had been an “unreasonable and unjustifiable” increase in the prices of both plots of land and villas within the last year. He urged builders and realtors to be satisfied with reasonable profits.

Al-Zaylai, who is also a member of the Social Committee at the Shoura Council, stressed the need for changing the citizen’s concept of owning a house. “It is not indispensable for all citizens to live in separate villas. Instead, they should be prepared to live in residential apartments. Construction of such apartments in accordance with modern designs would provide full-fledged facilities for them,” he said while noting that most of the townships and mega residential apartments were featured with all the infrastructure and utility services needed such as parking areas, gardens, mosques, and pedestrian pavements.

Al-Zaylai said: “The price for one square meter of the building area ranged between SR500 and SR800 two years ago, but now the rate at remote and isolated areas without utility services is already SR2,000.” He called for intervention from the authorities to curb such reckless practices. 

Referring to the cases of Saudi families living in congested villas after buying them at high rates, Al-Zaylai said each villa should have a minimum area covering 400 square meters, given that the minimum area of residential units constructed by the government for poor people had been fixed at that size.

Jabreen Ali Al-Jabreen, associate professor of social studies at the Faculty of Arts, King Saud University in Riyadh, said the immediate surroundings of an individual had a great impact on his behavior. “When we look at the construction mode of apartments in our major cities, we notice there are grave defects in their designs. The realtors apparently have forgotten their social responsibility when they restricted the areas of each residential unit to the minimum space,” he said. As a result, most of these apartments were congested and did not have adequate ventilation or courtyards. In addition, they did not have parking areas or gardens or passages leading to mosques or markets. These surroundings produced a big impact on the personality of the dwellers, which reflected in their attitudes toward their families, neighbors and members of society, Al-Jabreen said.

Abdul Ilah bin Muhammad Al-Maayouf, an expert in the field, said there had been an unprecedented change in the lifestyle of Saudi families over the past three decades. “Earlier, people preferred to live in huge residential villas, with many extended families living together. This system was very beneficial, and people led a much happier life,” he said. Al-Maayouf found fault with the construction of residential units from the very beginning of designing.

Khaled Al-Tayash, another expert, said that the area covering residential units depended mainly on the number of family members. “In the past, areas of residential units were very limited despite the large number of family members living together in them.”

According to Al-Tayash, this changed after the 1970s boom, when most citizens moved from their traditional mud-and-brick houses to modern concrete apartments.

As more people started taking up jobs in both the public and private sectors, they became more conscious about having independent homes, he said.

Al-Tayash urged the authorities to set up a separate ministry for housing in order to make available suitable housing units at reasonable prices.