Saudi group says housing policy fails to meet needs

A Saudi human rights group claims that the government is failing to provide more houses and the loans given to citizen's is not enough.

RIYADH // A Saudi human rights group is demanding the government improve regulations and increase its housing allocation to provide more houses to almost one third of the kingdom's population who do not own homes. The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), an independent rights group, says the amount of the loans the government gives citizens is not enough for them to build decent houses. With almost 70 per cent of the population under 35 years of age, and with an increasing number of divorced and widowed women, the demand for adequate housing will only grow. Although the budget of the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF), the major lending body for housing in the kingdom, has increased by five billion riyals (Dh4.9bn) this year, experts say it is not nearly enough. The real estate fund gives out an interest-free loan of 300,000 riyals to each qualified Saudi national to build a home. But the amount has not changed in three decades and the time it takes to secure a loan can be decades long. "We want the government to increase the amount of the housing loans from 300,000 to 500,000 Saudi riyals at least in order for the people to have decent places to live in," said Mufleh Rabiyan al Qahtani, the president of national rights group. "Securing homes for the needy is an obligation for the government and part of the people's rights as humans." Mr al Qahtani, who is also a law professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, said the problem extends beyond financial constraints as there are few laws regulating the housing sector. "The legal relation between the tenants and the property owners is very weak and doesn't secure both parties' rights," he said. He also pointed out that the number of women in charge of their families is increasing, but not all of them are qualified for REDF loans. "We want the government to ease the standards in order to increase women's access to REDF housing loans," Mr al Qahtani said. In general, to qualify for an REDF loan, the applicant must present proof of land ownership. The criteria needed after that are harder for women to meet than men. Saudi men who are married can qualify for the loans if they are at least 21 years old. Single men must be 24. Single women, on the other hand, cannot apply for loans until they reach 40. Newly divorced and recently widowed women must wait two years before applying. For both sexes, the waiting period for an REDF loan is measured in decades. On average, it takes between 20 to 28 years to get a loan. According to the fund's figures, almost a half million Saudis are on the waiting list. This is equivalent to the number of loan recipients since the fund launched in 1975. The Saudi finance ministry announced last Monday the budget for the coming year, increasing REDF capital over five years by 25 billion riyals to reduce the waiting period on loans. However, Ihsan Bu-Hulaiga, a member of the finance committee of Saudi's legislative body, the Shoura Council, said the increase in the real estate fund will not be enough and the country needs to rethink the way it finances housing. "Providing people with houses is becoming a dilemma and the biggest of all the trouble for the government," Mr Bu-Hulaiga said. "The families that can't afford to buy homes in Saudi are not poor, they are middle-class families with good source of income." He said solution is not simply in providing more funds but changing regulations to allow for more government-backed financing options for citizens from banks as well as private real estate developers. "The private sector is the carriage and the government is the horse. Without the government guarantees, no one will lend money to Saudis to build new homes," Mr Bu-Hulaiga said. In a report published last week, the King Abdullah Foundation for Developmental Housing revealed that there are at least five million Saudis renting homes and at least 800,000 living in shanties. [e-mail]