Riyadh aims to more than double its population and become one of the 10 richest cities in the world RIYADH: The National Housing Company (NHC) aims to add 147,000 housing units in the capital Riyadh over the next few years, Saudi Press Agency reported, citing CEO Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Bati. This is part of the company’s plan to increase the residential real estate supply in Riyadh on an area of more than 83 million square meters at prices starting from SR300,000 ($79.987). Riyadh aims to more than double its population and become one of the 10 richest cities in the world under ambitious plans unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in January. NHC is working to develop seven major residential suburbs with an area of more than 53 million square meters and provide more than 134,000 housing units that meet Sakani Program beneficiaries" aspirations, Al-Bati said during a speech at the Sakani program forum for the second quarter of 2021. This development is supported by the Crown Prince, who ordered the allocation of 20 million square meters to be added to the area of Al-Gwan suburb north of Riyadh, bringing its total area to more than 30 million square meters and providing more than 73,000 housing units, he said. NHC’s current projects which support the real estate supply in the Kingdom total 107 under construction that provide more than 113,000 housing units, with a value of more than SR72 billion, in partnership with 71 qualified real estate developers, where projects are located in most regions of the Kingdom, Al-Bati said. The affordable housing projects on the Ministry"s lands have reached more than 43 projects that provide over 13,000 housing units distributed around the Kingdom, he said. The company signed 10 agreements in the first quarter of this year that contributed to pumping more than 2,000 housing units, bringing the number by the end of the first half of 2021 to 18 agreements that resulted in supplying more than 12,000 housing units into the market, he said.