Sakani housing program beneficiaries received SR734 million in July Figure compares with SR587 million a year earlier RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Sakani housing program beneficiaries received SR734 million ($195.7 million) from the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing and The Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) in July, up from SR587 million a year earlier, SPA reported. This steady increase will continue for the next few years, Mohamed AlKhars, a member of the housing program advisory board and the chairman of Innovest Property Co. told Arab news. Support for citizen’s first homes will be a policy that remains in places for many years in the Kingdom, he said. However, the cost of support has fallen, he said. “There has been a drop in the interest on loans during the last three years, after negotiations with financiers, which are paid by the REDF,” said AlKhars. The total amount deposited in the accounts of Sakani beneficiaries since the announcement of the transformation program in June 2017 until this July exceeded SR29.6 billion, said Mansour bin Madi, CEO of REDF. In another Saudi step toward developing the housing sector, the Developers Services Center (ETMAM) approved nine housing schemes during the first half of this year, with a total area of more than 16.1 million square meters. The approved plans included Riyadh, Makkah, Al-Qassim, the Eastern Province, Asir, Tabuk, and the northern border, Al Eqtisadiah reported. ETMAM completed during the first half of this year building permit applications for 8,131 housing units, and the issuance of 119 real estate developer qualification certificates for sales projects. “Those numbers will increase in the coming phase,” AlKhars said. The center also contributed to the issuance of 45 sales licenses for off-plan sales projects, and 2,171 real estate developers were qualified in cooperation with the competent authorities to provide real estate development services.