The Saudi Housing Experience

(Ali bin Salim bin Omar Bahammam)

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Abstract

The availability of housing, which is socially and economically relevant for the whole society, is a measure of advancement and stability. Therefore, during the last decades, the government of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia brought about a set of programs, that have produced a unique housing experience. This experience with its multiple programs compose an orchestration of completeness, which eventually accomplished a qualitative and quantitative transformation in the availability of suitable housing in each city and village, and with surplus in major cities. This has limited the negative effects of the growing rate of demand over the rate of supply, and consequentially diverts a lot of the socio-economic problems, which are usually associated with housing crises. This study aims to document the Saudi housing experience and identifies its characteristics, and concludes the required recommendations for confronting the future housing needs in the Kingdom. It studies and documents the Saudi housing experience, which is unique by its multiple programs. This experience contains various means, the most important are the land grants program, the Real Estate Development Fund program, the government housing program for both public housing schemes and special housing schemes for the employees of different governmental agencies, or indirectly, through supporting the building industry and technology, which helps to import and establish them locally, constituting a strong and broad foundation to maintain the continuity of future construction.
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