Mortgage finance leapt 130% to SAR 674 bln in 2022: REDF CEO

Mansour Bin Madi, Chief Executive Officer of Real Estate Development Fund

Real Estate Development Fund’s (REDF) CEO Mansour Bin Madi affirmed that the Kingdom’s mortgage finance for individuals exceeded SAR 674 billion in 2022, rising by a record high of 130% from SAR 287 billion during the transformation phase in 2017.

The national housing program, under the Saudi Vision 2030, was a success and an inspiration, the CEO told a dialogue session during the second edition of the Real Estate Future Forum 2023 in Riyadh.

The program created a mortgage finance market that managed to promote growth opportunities and enable the innovation and development of financing and housing solutions, with an aim to raise Saudi homeownership, Bin Madi elaborated.

This achievement represented a major transformation and tangible progress in the Kingdom’s mortgage finance sector. It enriches the market’s future vision, he added, referring to the REDF’s contribution, through Tatweer Program, in providing qualitative solutions to enhance the mortgage finance market.

It helped real estate developers to create high-quality competitive projects. The program also supported mortgage finance companies and institutions through the home finance program.

REDF plays a key role in the Kingdom’s real estate financing market, Bin Madi said, indicating that it serves as a strategic supporter for the sector, in order to achieve the housing program goals.

The growth witnessed in the real estate and financing sector was driven by the fund’s effective and pioneering contribution. Over 150 agreements were concluded with an aim to enhance sustainable housing subsidy programs, as well as building and strengthening public-private partnerships (PPPs).

This cooperation was established to provide Saudi families with a variety of financing and housing options commensurate with their purchasing capabilities and needs to own adequate housing, Bin Madi added.

The programs and enablers developed in partnership with financing institutions included the Subsidized Funding Program, which provides mortgages of up to SAR 500,000 per person, with up to 100% subsidized profits. They also included housing support packages that offer beneficiaries immediate, non-refundable financial support of up to SAR 100,000.

The partnerships, moreover, developed a financing guarantee program, and a facilitated mortgage program, not to mention the real estate advisor platform that provided beneficiaries with more than 1.2 million financing and housing recommendations.

All these enablers were created within the framework of the continuous efforts exerted to improve the affordability of housing costs and avail opportunities for Saudi families to own adequate housing. They came in fulfillment of the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030’s housing program.

Supported by digital governance in consistency with the best international standards, these enablers contributed to the implementation of more than 10 million digital housing transactions through 43 electronic services, Bin Madi added. He noted that the fund’s programs and services were linked with more than 103 e-services of the housing and financing system.

This helped in accelerating the pace of national homeownership, and enabled more than 684,000 families to sign their mortgage agreements until the end of 2022.