RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s efforts to increase home ownership among its citizens received a further boost as the Kingdom’s National Housing Co. reiterated its commitment to accelerate the pace of housing delivery across the Kingdom. The state-owned firm, which recently announced the handover of 25,000 units in various parts of the Kingdom, has delivered 17,700 houses since the beginning of the current year. The company said it strives to meet the objectives of Vision 2030’s housing program which aims to increase the rate of home ownership from 60.6 percent in 2022 to 70 percent in 2030. Saudi Arabia’s housing demand stood at 99,600 houses in 2021 and it is expected to increase by more than 50 percent to reach 153,000 houses by 2030, according to a report released in December last year by PwC Middle East. In an effort to accelerate the pace of housing delivery, NHC said it aims to build more than 153,000 housing units over an area larger than 105 million sq. meters, through developing nine suburbs and five residential communities. The firm intends to provide modern housing within spacious areas of green spaces and integrated facilities with sustainable standards. In a report released in December of last year, S&P Global said that the Kingdom will invest $1 trillion in infrastructure and real estate developments, with at least eight new cities and more than 1.3 million new homes planned by the year 2030, mostly along the Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia’s real estate sector is seeing rapid growth with property prices continuing to grow amid limited supply. In the residential sector, the average apartment price in Riyadh increased by 17.3 percent annually, a report released last month by global consultancy firm CBRE showed. However, in Jeddah, Dammam and Alkhobar, the average apartment prices dropped by 0.7 percent, 2.5 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. In the villa segment, the CBRE report said that major cities in Saudi Arabia mainly saw positive performances in the first quarter, with average prices improving in Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh by 28.1 percent, 10.2 percent and 6 percent, respectively. In the first quarter, the volume of residential transactions reached 30,213 deals, with the overall value hitting SR22.8 billion ($9.58 billion).