The huge increase in demand for mortgages is part of the Saudi government’s aim to increase home ownership in the Kingdom to 70 percent as part of the Vision 2030 targets DUBAI: The total amount of mortgage loans provided by Saudi banks increased to SR15.27 billion ($4.07 billion) in November 2020, up 79 percent compared to the same month in 2019, according to the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). Villa loans accounted for 81 percent of the mortgages, while the total number of contracts in the month was 30,017. The huge increase in demand for mortgages is part of the Saudi government’s aim to increase home ownership in the Kingdom to 70 percent as part of the Vision 2030 targets, up from 50 percent in 2018. Khalil Ibrahim Al-Sedais, office managing partner for KPMG in Riyadh, said: “The lending space in the Saudi banking sector has been rife with continued growth in mortgage financing throughout the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) environment. “It is an endorsement of the housing demand in the country and testament of government support measures.” A clear indicator of the mortgage sector’s resilience can be seen in comments by Fabrice Susini, the CEO of the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co. (SRC). The firm was set up in 2017 by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) with the aim of helping the mortgage sector, and had set a target of 10 percent of total residential mortgage loans by the end of 2020 and 20 percent over the next few years. However, Susini told S&P Global in June that the time frames for SRC’s targets had been extended due to the “dynamic growth in the mortgage market in the past year.”