RIYADH — Residential new mortgage loans for individuals reached 234,466 contracts with value of SR109.2 billion, until October 2020, and it exceeded all mortgages provided by all real estate financing institutions and banks in 2019 and 2018. Until October 2020, according to the monthly report issued by Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), they registered a growth of 73% in the number of loans and 81% in loans compared to the same period of 2019. The report emphasized that mortgage loans in October 2020 recorded 25,961 contracts an increase of 19%. Residential loans last month worth SR12.5 billion with 35% growth compared to October 2019 that recorded 21,759 contracts with a value of SR9.3 billion. The SAMA report indicates that 97% of new mortgages were concluded through banks, while 3% of them through financing companies. The 25,033 housing product loans subsidized by government programs concluded in October 2020, constituted 96% of the total number of contracts with a value of SR11.9 billion, or about 95% of the value of the funds. In October, residential villas acquired the largest portion of funding with SR10.1 billion, or about 81% of the total funding provided by banks and financing companies. Residential apartments came in second with SR1.7 billion (14%). Residential lands come in third with SR6.5 million (5%). 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, in 2016 with 22,259 contracts worth SR17,096 billion. — SG