RIYADH: The Kingdom’s real estate market is likely to exceed SR82 billion during the next three years with expectations of the volume of investments to reach SR484 billion, according to Fahad Al-Sultan, secretary general of the Council of Saudi Chambers. He also announced that the Saudi Arabian International Real Estate Conference (SAIRE) would be held in Riyadh from Feb. 28 to March 2.
He indicated that the real estate sector was the Kingdom’s most important sector after oil. “It has 92 related active industries linked to one another in the sector. It contributes about SR55 billion to the national GDP (gross domestic product) of the Kingdom.”
Sultan said that according to the data of the development plan, the gross national product of the real estate sector in the Kingdom rose by 50 percent during the period from 1999 to 2008 with an average annual growth of five percent.
Speaking about the conference, Sultan said it will be held under the patronage of Commerce and Industry Minister Abdullah Zainal Alireza with the title “Real Estate Investment: Sustainable Development. He expected the conference to be a brainstorming session with active participation of those connected to real estate in the public and private sectors and the media.
The official said that following the conference, the participants were expected to call for the establishment of a government authority to look after the Kingdom’s real estate business. Sultan said the local market needed 164,000 to 200,000 housing units per year, pointing out that it required the construction of 2.62 million housing units by 2020.
“The volume of real estate transactions has doubled to reach some SR1 trillion, and will continue to grow if approved mortgages and real estate financing facilities become a reality in the Kingdom.”
Hamad Al-Showair, president of the National Committee for Real Estate, said the keynote speaker at the conference would be Prince Mansour bin Miteb, minister of municipal and rural affairs.
