RIYADH: Supply of new housing units in Saudi Arabia surged in the first quarter as the government’s Sakani and Wafi programs drove the building of affordable housing.
New housing supply surged 29 percent year on year in the first three months of 2021 and by 0.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Housing Ministry’s Housing Data and Observatory Center.
There were 344,000 housing units built in the Kingdom over the past year. Construction started on 101,000 units in the first quarter of 2021, an 18 percent increase on the same period a year earlier, while 106,000 units were completed.
The average price of residential apartments fell below SR500,000 ($133,315) in the first quarter of 2021 from the end of 2020.
Residential real estate deals exceeded 255,000 in 2020, according to Ministry of Justice data.
