Housing woes testing Saudi reform drive
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is building a futuristic megacity with promises of talking robots and flying taxis, but for hundreds of thousands like academic Abdullah a simple dream remains elusive - owning a home. Housing is a potential lightning rod for public discontent in a country where affordable dwellings are beyond the reach of many, posing a key challenge for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he seeks to overhaul the oil-reliant economy.
For decades, the once tax-free petrostate dished out interest-free housing loans. But Saudi Arabia is now pushing to boost mortgage lending in a contentious policy shift that is squeezing the middle-class as it chips away at its cradle-to-grave welfare in an era of low oil prices. For many like Abdullah, a 39year-old father of three with a rented apartment in Riyadh, this has delayed the dream of building his own home on the city’s outskirts.
After more than a decade on a waiting list for an interest-free loan from the kingdom’s Real Estate Development Fund, Abdullah says it referred him to a commercial bank to take out a mortgage worth 445,000 riyals ($119,000). He used the money to start building a house
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