Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

acash

Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements and Housing
ACASH

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Housing Sector in Saudi Arabia

All human have a right to live in adequate shelter. Therefore, housing is one of the most critical topics in most developed and developing countries. Recently, and because of oil revenues, Gulf countries achieved great developments and made huge steps to be an advanced countries. These revenues encouraged Gulf countries to develop their economy, infrastructures and policies. Among Gulf countries, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made a noticeable progress in recent decades in enhancing and developing the economy and urban form. The Kingdom had and still has a rapid increase in population. The growth rate of the total population between 2004 and 2010 was around 3%. Group aged below 25 years old represents more than 50% of the total population. In addition, the process of urbanization has gained considerable momentum during the past decades, particularly during the years of the economic boom in the early 1970s. The proportion of the population living in urban areas increased rapidly from 48 percent in 1974 to 81 percent in 2004. Also, the high rate of migration to major cities cannot be neglected. Housing market in the Saudi Arabia witnessed a rapid rise in houses and land prices in most areas of the Kingdom. This increase exceeded the household incomes. This contributed in creating a shortage in affordable housing supply. The majority of households are unable to purchase houses with these high prices. On the other hand, the demand for affordable housing has largely increased in the past decades due to many reasons. Increase of population, inflation, variation of income levels…etc. are examples of these reasons.

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