Old residential areas in the Kingdom should be acquired from their owners by paying them compensation and developed to meet the rising demand for housing, say experts.

Abdullah Al–Maghluth, a member of the Saudi Economic Association (SEA), said old neighborhoods in cities have a significant economic and developmental value.

“There is an urgent need to exploit such units, many of which are being used as warehouses and shelters for illegal laborers after the owners abandoned the units to live in new areas,” he said.

Al–Maghluth urged the public and private sectors to take advantage of these neighborhoods and turn them into residential and commercial new units.

He said this trend will take investment in the real estate sector toward new horizons and help citizens own homes or lease commercial units.

“This type of investment should be adopted by the agencies concerned in partnership with the private sector,” Al–Maghluth added.

Abdullah Al-Ahmari, chairman of the Real Estate Appraisal Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, cited the strategy used in the slums in Makkah. He said instead of providing houses to a limited number of residents, those old buildings could be exploited to accommodate more residential units.

Services and infrastructures provided in old neighborhoods need to be developed, he said.

“White land within urban scale should be changed into residential units while focusing on vertical and not horizontal expansion. This will reduce costs of providing services to new locations outside the urban boundary,” Al-Ahmari said.