JEDDAH, 23 December 2004 — The establishment of a higher authority to mobilize resources and support for the real estate sector was among the measures proposed at a conference here last night. The conference is part of an exhibition on real estate and investment, which ends today. Dr. Fahad Y. Aleatany, professor of international business and economy at King Abdul Aziz University, presided.
“Real estate is one of the biggest sectors of the Kingdom,” Professor Yassin Jeffery said in his presentation on the sector’s present situation. “Both Saudi men and women are participating or investing in this sector heavily, but investments in this sector need to be mobilized in a big way with institutionalized support,” he said and compared the Kingdom’s development in this sector with some countries where real estate was developing by leaps and bounds.
“We’ve lot of real estate activities across the Kingdom, but they are not as much as we see in some foreign countries,” he said and mentioned some indicators that were stunting the growth of this sector. “One of the indicators is the cost,” he said, adding that the cost in a real estate project may be 50 to 60 times the per capita income here as against 15 to 20 times in some countries.
“So we need to concentrate on structuring financial institutions that could be helpful like in the form of offering mortgage or funds. Government agencies and banks could play a greater role. “The future outlook for this sector is bright provided we take corrective and effective measures. If we don’t take the right measures then we may be faced with housing shortages, say, after 10 years since by then our younger population will need them more. The solution is to invest more to meet the future needs.”
