Social housing plan kicks off

Bahrain is one of the leading countries in providing best care for the expatriates, a study conducted recently by HSBC Bank and published in the Washington Post revealed.

China and Thailand are also rated among the best countries in this regard followed by Switzerland, Cayman Islands and Singapore.

The study pointed out that laws concerning the expatriates in the Middle East differ from one country to another. However, Bahrain is an exception as its government seeks to attract wealthy foreign investors to boost the economy. Qatar comes next in this respect, the study added.

Concerning the quality of life, according to the survey, which was conducted on 7004 expatriates in 37 countries, Bahrain ranked second after Thailand, outclassing Cayman Islands, Australia, India and Spain. The Ministry of Housing began last week receiving applications from citizens interested in benefiting from the social housing funding programme launched with the cooperation of the Ministry of Finance, Eskan Bank and participation of various financial institutions, commercial banks and real estate development companies.

The first day saw a large attendance of applicants who expressed their appreciation of the Ministry’s easy application procedures.

Ministry of Housing Undersecretary for Policy and Housing Services Dr Khalid Al Haidan said that more applications are expected from citizens. According to latest statistics, a large number of applicants have expressed their interest in getting an appointment in order to begin the procedures so as to avail the programme.

Dr Al Haidan said that the ministry had made all the necessary preparations to accommodate the greatest number of applicants and simplified the procedures as much as possible.

The programme enables citizens to buy their homes from any private company and the ministry will pay 90 per cent of their mortgage while beneficiary will pay a quarter of his salary for 25 years.