RIYADH: The Saudi National Housing Co. (NHC) signed eight agreements on Thursday for the development of the second phase of the Murcia residential project in Riyadh’s Al-Jawan suburb and the Khayala project in Al-Hamdaniya, Jeddah. Minister of Housing Majid Al-Hogail, who is also the acting minister of municipal and rural affairs, attended the signing of the agreements in Riyadh. The two projects are being implemented in partnership with private real estate developers to provide housing units to the beneficiaries of the Ministry of Housing’s Sakani program. The Murcia project occupies 5 million square meters north of Riyadh and is part of the Al-Jawan project, for which the NHC is the main developer. The new phase will provide 9,052 residential units, including villas, apartments, and townhouses. In total, the Murcia project will consist of 14,300 residential units. The Khayala project extends over an area of more than 1.5 million square meters in the northern part of the governorate and will consist of 3,400 residential units. Both of these residential projects will include mosques, educational and health services, commercial and entertainment centers, and parks “to provide a quality of life that meets the needs of Saudi families,” according to a press release, which also explained: “The residential units feature diverse and modern designs that suit different tastes, in addition to their reasonable prices for those who deserve housing support.” NHC CEO Mohammed Al-Bati said in the release that this move reflects the “active leading role” the company adopted since its inception to “provide an integrated housing environment and develop the real estate development sector, stimulate it, and enhance its attractiveness to create integrated and modern housing projects that cover various cities and serve the community.” He added: “We, at NHC, are always keen to develop more housing projects that are not limited to providing various units with distinctive designs and modern models, but also provide an integrated environment in terms of facilities and services to meet the aspirations and achieve the highest quality standards in the real-estate-development sector. This contributes to achieving the objectives of the Housing and the Quality of Life programs of Saudi Vision 2030.”