Kuwait on track to meet its ambitious housing targets
Kuwait Housing and Residential Development Forum meets
Senior representatives from the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW), Supreme Council of Planning and Development (MOP), Kuwait Municipality and Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) have gathered yesterday for the ‘Kuwait Housing and Residential Development Forum’ to discuss best practice engineering, design and project planning in order to meet Kuwait’s ambitious housing targets set by the PAHW.
With over 100,000 people awaiting housing by the Public Authority for Housing Welfare, the Forum has been organized to bring together key government ministries, private developers, contractors and consultants to discuss new partnerships, engineering and design strategies for the delivery of five new cities on the outskirts of Kuwait. The Forum kicked off with a keynote address from Dr Khaled A Al-Mahdi, Secretary General for the Supreme Council of Planning and Development, Kuwait. He outlined the strategy for Kuwait’s National Development Plan. The plan has been branded the ‘New Kuwait’ and amongst a host of other aims, will build on the current momentum in the housing sector by launching more master plans for further large scale developments.
Following Dr Khaled A Mahdi, Eng Naser Khraibut, Director of Planning at PAHW, delivered an update on Kuwait’s residential developments including, South Al-Mutlaa, the largest housing project in Kuwait and South Saad AlAbdullah, a new smart city being developed in conjunction with the Korean government. The update provided a good opportunity for investors, developers and contractors to understand the current opportunities in the Kuwaiti residential market.
High on the agenda for discussion at the summit was an update on the Energy Conservation codes of Practice by Dr Adnan A Al-Homoud, Vice Chairman of the Code Approval Committee from MEW. The codes have been revised to ensure sustainable design initiatives are implemented across Kuwait’s commercial buildings. The MEW is encouraging that similar practices are to be implemented across the residential sector. In an era of low oil prices and potential electricity subsidy cuts, it is now more important than ever for housing and residential communities to be designed sustainably.
Key to delivering ambitious housing targets and developing smart, sustainable urban communities is the adoption of PPP models.
Eng. Khaled Al-Mashaan, CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of ALARGAN International Real Estate Company and part of the sponsor and speaker faculty of the conference, highlighted the ‘need today to develop affordable communities that provide high quality residential and mixed-use spaces that ensure sustainable urban development.’ He said that, ‘a strategy regulated by government authorities and executed in partnership with the private sector can deliver this said need. With our experience at ALARGAN, in building across the region (KSA, Oman, Bahrain) we have the expertise that will ensure sustainable long-term energy-efficient developments that will best serve their communities.’
The Forum provided a rare opportunity for all key government stakeholders to come together and address the challenges within the Kuwaiti housing market and network with contractors, developers and solution providers offering state-of the art sustainable design solutions to develop Kuwait’s future cities.
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