JEDDAH: The Housing Ministry and the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) announced the launching of the 9th batch of the Sakani housing program for 2018, aiming to allocate 300,000 housing and financial products across the Kingdom. This batch have benefited 33,472 citizens, and the financing and residential products this year number more than 215,000, including 74,700 mortgage loans, 63,222 free lands, 2,384 ready residential units, 67,367 units under development and 8,000 purchases of units on the market. Meanwhile, the total number of financing and residential products announced since the launching of the program in the beginning of 2017 has exceeded 500,000. The ministry announced details of the residential products and their geographic allocation during a press conference held at the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) media headquarters. The batch included 8,300 mortgage loans, 5,961 housing units under development in partnership with real estate developers, and 11,211 free-of-charge land parcels. It also announced that 8,000 citizens will benefit from buying ready units on the market. According to the 9th batch data, 5,961 housing units under development have been allocated to Riyadh, while the free-of-charge lands provided by the ministry were distributed as follows: 685 in Riyadh, 2,657 in Makkah, 5,200 in Asir, 650 in Tabuk, 521 in the northern border region, 620 in Jizan, 773 in Al-Jouf and 105 in Baha. The beneficiaries of the REDF are distributed as follows: 2,189 in Riyadh, 1,346 in Makkah, 1015 in the Eastern Province, 724 in Qassim, 706 in Madinah, 609 in Asir, 311 in Najran, 308 in Hail, 299 in Tabuk, 234 in the northern border region, 228 in Al-Jouf, 169 in Jazan, 162 in Baha. The purchasing of ready units on the market included 1,924 in Riyadh, 1,950 in Makkah, 2,355 in the Eastern Province, 515 in Asir, 463 in Madinah, 382 in Qassim, 266 in Hail and 145 in Tabuk. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Ghazwani, general supervisor of the real estate development sector at the Housing Ministry, said that Sakani program is continuing to provide residential units to help citizens own suitable housing solutions. He stressed that the program is also continuing to implement its policy in increasing the allocation numbers progressively, by injecting more diverse units, at prices between SR250,000 ($67,000) and SR750,000, in a comprehensive housing environment, along with other diverse products, as part of the ministry’s efforts to increase the ownership rate to 60% by 2020 within the objectives of the Iskan program.