Previously, I had thought that this was due to the government’s subsidizing and endowments during the heyday of economic plenty three decades ago.
The government gave out land endowments measuring around 625 sq. meters for housing projects. Also back then the Real Estate Development Fund helped beneficiaries build two-story villas.
In fact, government funding helped many Saudi families to move from medium-sized homes (around 100 sq. meters) into villas three times that size.
Under the same planning and construction rules, that continued thereafter, many Saudi families managed to build houses that were distinguished by their large dimensions, various facilities and allocating many rooms to serve the same function (such as more than one living room or salon), so that it became a cultural priority to own such a house with its many quarters for Saudis, whether they needed them or not. Thus all this led me to believe that the government’s endowments and grants, in addition to certain building regulations and stipulations were the reasons behind such a surge of building big houses, for example, that had more than ten bathrooms, several kitchens, several bedroom suites, each with its own bathroom and dressing room, and many other superfluous amenities that are considered overboard, especially for a family of six or seven.
This led to the need for the recruitment of domestic workers from other countries, since women started to complain about fatigue and their inability to keep on top of things while managing such big houses.
However, at the same time, the relative ease and low cost of recruiting foreign domestic help, in my view, encouraged Saudi families to build bigger houses with more facilities and amenities during these past decades.
Indeed, recruiting domestic help became an absolute necessity for running Saudi households. Thus it comes as no surprise to anyone, that during any time there is a crisis in the domestic help recruitment market, panic ensues and there is a rush to find temporary local labor for housework.
However, if they have to do without maids for much longer periods, families start to decrease or eliminate the use of certain rooms and facilities in the house; that is, until domestic help is once more easily available. Later, if the crisis continues still, more drastic measures are taken, that require building reconstruction.
Big houses and villas that are built beyond most families’ needs and requirements for daily living, demand much more time, effort by the housewife and are a burden upon her shoulders, as more space means more responsibilities.
It is virtually impossible for one person to be the sole caretaker of a house bigger than 200 sq. meters, without the aid of domestic help. The question is, would we still be building larger, more spacious houses, if it were not possible to recruit low cost foreign domestic help with the least possible hassle?
