The real estate sector is regarded one of the dynamic sectors in development

Hamad A. Al Showair, Managing Director of Hamad Al-Showair Group talks about the importance of real estate sector in Saudi Arabia.

The real estate sector is regarded one of the dynamic sectors in development, it is a target sector for all community segments and a safe channel because it depends on a set of pillars that depend on the strength of KSA economy, and the urgent demand for housing units. Now we can see that the percentage of KSA youth under age of 30 is about 70% of population, accordingly all those youth need houses. According to the recent statistics, the demand for housing units in the KSA is more than 200,000 housing units per year.
All these factors give a significant importance to the sector.

Definitely, the sector faces some challenges and obstacles, among them the finance as it is regarded the minimum finance in the neighbouring countries or in the developed countries. We still demand more finance and hope that banks and financial institutions will enhance the supply of finance for the sector’s enterprises. Most of such enterprises are housing or developing enterprises.

Another challenge is the lack of reference, so we hope we will have a reference or a national body that would organize and supervise all the systems of the real estate sector.

Also, another challenge is the lack of information centres that can provide investors with future outlooks about the real estate sector.

If we go back to the motivations that the state undertook to motivate the real estate sector, we will find the establishment of the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers (Taqeem), which is a good step to maintain and evaluate the real estate wealth properly in accordance with the international laws. The Authority for Accredited Valuers will give the Saudi youth the opportunity to get involved in this industry as it does need Saudi youth, energy and competencies. The authority still offers training courses for Saudi youth to involve them in this industry to turn the sector into a professional and industrial one.