A consortium including Korean group Hanwha Engineering & Construction has won a $20-billion project to build 100,000 homes in Saudi Arabia, said a report.

The housing development plan will mark the largest ever project that a Korean builder has clinched from a foreign country, according to the Korean Herald, citing company officials.

Hanwa joined the other consortium partners - Korea's Daewoo Engineering & Construction and leading Saudi builder Saudi Pan Kingdom for Trading, Industry & Contracting (Sapac) -  to sign the MoU with the Saudi Arabian Housing of Ministry for the new city development project.

“We will supply 100,000 houses and city infrastructure in Alfursan near the Riyadh International Airport and this will be a landmark deal for Korea’s overseas construction history in terms of the size,” a Hanwha E&C spokesman said.

The project, which will be funded by the Saudi government, is aimed at building a new town named Dahiyat Al-Fursan, 35 km north from the capital city of Riyadh, added the Korean paper Dong-A Ilbo.

Construction will be conducted by Daewoo E&C, Hanwha E&C and Sapac Consortium, a construction giant in Saudi Arabia. A formal contract will be signed in the latter half of the year, and construction will begin towards the end of 2016, the report said.

The Saudi Ministry estimated last year that the kingdom’s lack of housing infrastructure would require three million new homes by 2025, based on projected growth of the population.