Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman replaced the housing minister late on Wednesday, a day after pledging to speed up efforts to end a shortfall in housing units, in his first address to the nation since ascending the throne in January.

“We have relieved Housing Minister Shuwaish Al-Dhuwaihi of his position and entrust State Minister Essam bin Saeed to carry out the duties of housing minister,” the king said in a royal decree carried by the SPA.

The government has already allocated SR250 billion to construct 500,000 housing units in different parts of the Kingdom. It has also introduced a new mortgage law to improve the regulatory environment for banks to lend money.

The government has attempted to overcome a shortage of land around Saudi cities and towns caused by real estate owners holding property as a store of value or trading it for speculative profit instead of developing it for housing.

According to one report, 62 percent of the roughly 20 million Saudi citizens own their own homes, but the International Monetary Fund has estimated that excluding people living in traditional housing, the ratio is 36 percent.