RIYADH — The monthly statistical bulletin issued by The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) reported that mortgage loans in July 2020 continue to increase with 53% by 24,432 new contracts offered to individuals by banks and financing institutions. Housing loans reached SR11.1 billion with 55% comparing to July 2019, that recorded 15,961 contracts with a value of 7.2 billion. According to the report, individual mortgage loans jumped to 156,250 contracts, valued 72.3 billion, provided by all real estate financing institutions and banks during 2020. They registered growth of 85% in the number of loans and about 88% in loans compared to the same period of 2019. SAMA report indicates that 97% of newly signed mortgage loans were concluded through banks, while 3% of them through financing companies. In July, residential villas acquired 8.8 billion, or about 79% of the total funding. Residential apartments came in second with 1.6 billion (15%). Residential lands come in third with 648 million (6%). According to SAMA, real estate mortgage in 2019 jumped 3 times in a historical performance with 179,217 contracts with value of SR79,128 billion compared to that offered in 2018 of 50,496 contracts with a value of SR29.5 billion, in 2017 about 30,833 contracts with value of SR21,025 billion, while 2016 was about 22,259 contracts worth SR17,096 billion. — SG