The Saudi real estate financing sector has been witnessing a major surge over the last few years with the figure likely to hit SR502 billion ($133 billion) by 2020 from the current SR290 billion, said a report citing top experts at a real estate workshop in Riyadh.

The workshop was recently organised by Bidaya Home Finance to explore the development of the non-banking real estate sector and address its obstacles, reported the Saudi Gazette.
 
The move was in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 that seeks to increase the percentage of homeowners and enable citizens to own their first homes.

The delegates at the workshop learnt that Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC), which is owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, was offering financing at a fixed cost to help stablise the real estate financing sector besides offering fixed monthly instalments for beneficiaries.
 
The SRC was launched last year in partnership with the Ministry of Housing to stimulate housing sector development in the kingdom by injecting liquidity into the real estate market.

The workgroup discussed the development of the non-banking real estate financing sector and ways to increase its efficiency by raising its current share from eight to a minimum of 30 per cent by 2020, said the report.  

The SRC also outlined its future plans to achieve growth and stability in the real estate financing sector and refinancing 10 and 20 per cent of the total existing real estate loans by 2020 and 2026, respectively, it added.