Saudi Arabia to spend $240bn on housing by 2020

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Saudi Arabia is set to spend $240bn on housing by 2020, which is still almost $90bn short of the $347bn worth of investment required to meet demand, according to Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank (NCB).

Its new report on the market argues that the total number of houses to be developed over the next eight years will increase from 4.6m to 6.8m.

“The Saudi housing market continues to expand on the back of high population growth and increasing availability of financing alternatives,” the report states.

New mortgage laws will help to boost residential lending by banks to around $16bn this year, while King Abdullah has allocated around $66.7bn of longer-term financing to affordable housing projects.

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"The estimated SR 1.3tn ($345bn) investment needed to con-struct the 2.4 million housing units between 2011-2020 illustrates the magnitude of expenditures needed by both government and private entities in order to close the supply and demand gap," it adds.

"The growing demand in the housing market will create many opportunities for both commercial banks and real estate developers alike to take on more active roles."

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