He said the decision was taken by the board of directors of the fund chaired by Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf.
“Coordination will be made with the Ministry of Justice to formulate the necessary procedures following which the application of the decision will be announced,” he added.
Al-Harbi said the decision will enable citizens to purchase houses under easy and simple procedures. “Under the decision, citizens who already have loan approvals from the fund can now purchase housing units without the need to fulfill the condition of land ownership previously required by the fund in order to give them loans,” he said.
Both citizens and realtors welcomed the decision and said it would help solve the problem of housing and will boost the real estate market.
“This is an important step. It will enable citizens eligible to obtain loans from the fund to buy housing units.
They will no longer have to take loans from banks or individuals to buy plots of land in order to get loans from the REDF,” said Obaidallah Al-Malki, a realtor in Jeddah.
Nabeel Al-Ahmad, an employee of a real estate development company, said the decision will curb the black market in which a number of individuals take advantage of the need of the citizens for bank loans to purchase land in their own names in order to qualify for loans from the REDF.
“It will also be an incentive to buy housing units whose value is more than the amount of loans to be given by the REDF,” he added.
He said the guarantees to be provided by the REDF will boost the launching of new financing tools.
