Business & Money | Thursday 7 April, 2016 1:03 pm |

In keeping with demand, there has been a 50 percent increase in the construction of housing units in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) announced here Wednesday.
According to a report released by the MCI real estate off-plan sales program, the total value of projects under this program reached more than SR34 billion since its approval, including projects of more than SR13 billion licensed during 2015. This shows an increase of up to 50 percent compared with previous years.
Meanwhile, this program continues to follow up and supervise the implementation of 29,000 real estate off-plan sales units in various regions of the Kingdom.
The annual report issued by the said program revealed that the committee supervising the program held 32 meetings last year, where 106 topics were discussed, 10 new projects had been granted licenses and 13 licenses had been renewed for existing projects. Also nine licenses were granted for foreign projects marketing inside the Kingdom, and 15 licenses for existing projects.
The program also followed up the workflow, performance and completed phases of projects, discussed the latest developments and reviewed the periodic reports issued by the chartered accountant and the engineering consultant accredited by the program for each project. Sixty field visits have been conducted in different parts of the Kingdom.
The program responded to 158 complaints against real estate developers involved in real estate off-plan sales who had not obtained licenses, and others violating the law of marketing real estate outside the Kingdom where necessary investigations and legal procedures have been taken, while the program continues to implement inspection rounds on foreign marketing.
Last year, the program introduced new methods for real estate off-plan sales such as the licensing of units, for whatever purpose, licensing lands for off-plan sales, licensing marketing of foreign real estate off-plan sales (inside the Kingdom), licensing of presenting foreign real estate off-plan sales (inside the Kingdom’s exhibitions), where these methods have been received with great interest by developers and those interested in real estate affairs.
The program has also concluded several strategic partnerships with backers of the program such as banks, expo curators, as well as agreements with accounting and engineering bodies for the rehabilitation of accounting firms and engineering consultants to work in the field of real estate off-plan sales.
In an effort to support newly emerging real estate companies and developers, the program held a workshop on “Supporting Small & Medium Enterprises to Engage in Real Estate Off-Plan Sales Activity.”
Real estate off-plan sales projects have achieved a good growth during 2015, since this kind of sales gives more flexibility to buyers in the purchasing and financing process, and helps them to choose and design their units according to their wishes.