Saudi healthcare sector remains attractive to investors: JLL

Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector is the most attractive in the Gulf region in terms of real estate investment opportunities amid the country’s ongoing privatization plans, Craig Plumb, head of research at real estate consultancy JLL, told Argaam at the Cityscape Global conference in Dubai on Sunday.

The Kingdom’s decision to privatize the sector, as part of a broad range of economic reforms announced last year, is expected to attract investment and tackle a shortage of medical facilities and bed capacity.

“If the private sector delivers good quality projects, then yes, there is a potential to meet that shortage of supply,” Plumb added.

Riyadh alone currently needs to add 113 hospitals and 17,000 hospital beds by 2022 to reach the average level of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, JLL said in a report issued today. Jeddah, on the other hand, needs to add 20,400 additional beds and 136 hospitals.

Overall, healthcare facilities in the Middle East need to increase their bed density by 153 percent to reach global standards. The regional average stands at 1.9 hospital beds per 1,000 persons, compared to the OECD average of 4.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

Other demand drivers in the Saudi healthcare sector include increasing lifestyle diseases. With 14 percent of the population suffering from diabetes and 30 percent from obesity, the government is looking to mitigate these health issues, JLL added in its report.

Write to Yasmin Helal at yasmin.h@argaamplus.com