Future demand for affordable housing in Saudi Arabia will provide significant opportunities for both developers and investors over the next few years, according to the latest MENA (Middle East North Africa) House View report published by Jones Lang LaSalle, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm.
Saudi Arabia faces a potential shortfall of up to one million housing units in the Kingdom over the next three years, driven by demand from the kingdom’s young, fast growing and rapidly urbanising population. This demand for new space is not currently being matched by the supply of quality residential accommodation at affordable prices.
“Saudi Arabia is a market with huge potential but affordability remains the main challenge that needs to be overcome,” said John Harris, Head of KSA operations for Jones Lang LaSalle MENA. “There is currently a pricing mismatch between what the market is delivering and what most potential purchasers can afford to pay for their housing. Affordability will unlock the undoubted latent demand for additional housing, converting this into actual demand and increased sales activity.”
To meet the affordable housing challenge, Jones Lang LaSalle has identified four sets of criteria that need to be addressed to provide sufficient affordable housing in the Kingdom:
• Home Finance: Increasing the level of home finance is critical for the development of affordable housing. The approval of the much awaited mortgage law will also give a much needed boost to the market.
• Community Planning: An affordable housing format has to be appropriate and acceptable to the local population. Community planning needs to be improved to create a better balance between utility and social preferences.
• Engineering: Project costs can be reduced by applying innovative building technologies and economies of scale. Such practices will improve affordability and increase the supply of lower cost units. Initiatives by a Saudi institution to develop an integrated building system will certainly result in higher construction quality, reduce project cycle times and ultimately higher affordability.
• Business Models: Innovative business models need to be adopted involving greater cooperation between the government and major private sector developers. Currently, there are hardly any public private partnerships (PPPs) in the Kingdom’s housing development initiatives.
The report goes on to state that compared to other major real estate markets around the world Saudi Arabia continues to offer an attractive long term opportunity, with investors expecting to be the first market in MENA to recover from the current downturn. Jones Lang LaSalle also expects the Kingdom to be one of the strongest performing real estate markets in the region over the next 12 to 24 months, being the only market where investors expect prices to increase rather than decrease during the same period.
Commenting on the Saudi market generally, Abdollah Faadhel, Business Development Director for Jones Lang LaSalle states: “These observations are based on our local and regional knowledge balanced with global best practice. Saudi Arabia’s real estate market offers investors and developers significant opportunities. Given the generally worsening investment climate in the region, the focus is firmly shifting to the Kingdom where stronger fundamentals and sentiment offer more secure prospects in the medium term.”
Alice takes audiences on a magical journey as World of Stories begins at Mercato
World of Stories, the first Signature Event of DSS 2009, staged its first show at Mercato on Friday, June 12, as Alice, the popular children’s character, entertained audiences in a magical journey where she slips into a dream and meets several characters from various other stories such as the Fairy Godmother, Mary Poppins, Cheshire Cat, Aladdin, Robin Hood, Little Red Riding Hood and SnowWhite. ‘Alice Adventures’ is being staged in three shows at 5pm, 6:35pm, and 8pm till June 23.
World of Stories also features innumerable activities to keep children, families, and shoppers entertained throughout. Large 3D talking cutouts of characters will greet visitors as they enter the mall. These characters will inform visitors of the event and create a fun interactive experience all day long.
Additionally, the mascot of the White Rabbit will be in the mall to meet children and pose for photographs. Gilded frames containing iconic characters from children's literature and well known quotes will also be displayed around the mall.
An arts and crafts zone themed on the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party is another highlight of the event. Children can sit amidst the colourful tea party with Mad Hatter cutouts around them. A Mirror Maze is also being put up where visitors can see themselves shrink and enlarge in the mirrors.
An addition to this year’s World of Stories is a Quran Exhibition that aims to provide a true insight into the Quran, its revelation, its preservation and its message to humanity. Extracts from the Quran will also be recited in three readings a day.
For children who like to read, the Enchanted Forest Library comes filled with fairytale books that will hang from artificial tress and be sometimes hidden to encourage children to search for them.
