RIYADH: The Saudi Ministry of Housing has signed three residential real estate development agreements worth $4.4 billion, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) announced on Thursday on the sides of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh. One of the deals was a $2.6 billion memorandum signed between China’s PowerChina International Group, the Saudi Ministry of Housing, and National Housing Company, which aims to build 17,000 homes over the next six years in the Al-Asfar project. The second contract was between US-based Katerra, a construction-tech startup owned by Japan’s SoftBank, and the Eskan Program to improve the speed and efficiency of construction methods in the Kingdom. The last deal was concluded with SANY-Alameriah, a Chinese-Saudi partnership, and the Sakani program worth $1.2 billion, for the “Telal Alghoroob” project in Jeddah, where it aims to provide more than 6,500 apartments. The two other phases in Dammam will provide 1,632 villas and 1,514 apartments. The chairman of Sany-Alameriah, Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Ameri, said that the implementation would begin on Nov. 1, and the delivery of the first phase of housing units would be during 2020. Mr. Hejing Gao, general manager of Sany-Alameriah, said: “The high demand for housing in Saudi Arabia and the government’s direction to initiate partnerships with the private sector and stimulate foreign investment have created an attractive environment for investment in this sector. “We look forward to initiating the partnership we have agreed with the Ministry of Housing to build thousands of housing units.”