Business & Money | Friday 6 March, 2015 11:17 am |

The SR500,000 home loan provided by the government for citizens is not enough to pay for a three-bedroom apartment with a living room in Makkah, developers and real estate experts said recently.
The average family would need to take out an extra SR150,000 to SR200,000 just to buy an apartment built on the 175 square meters allocated by the Housing Ministry for each family in the country, they said.
Apartments of this size now cost between SR650,000 and SR700,000, which would force families to take out additional loans from local banks, said Bandar Al-Hmaidah, a member of the national real estate committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers.
Reda Kurdi, a member of the real estate committee at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said prices vary depending on the location in Makkah. “One could find an apartment for SR500,000 but it would be very small. If families want bigger space, they would have to take out extra loans,” he said.
Fahd Al-Mousa, a developer and real estate expert, said citizens in major cities can find apartments for the amount they get from the government, but in some places apartments are over SR1.5 million.
He said that in the east and west of Riyadh, some apartments cost SR500,000 each, and includes all services and infrastructure. But in the north of the city, he added, the prices are much higher with one square meter costing SR3,000.

Sources said the government would allocate 55 million square meters in eight Makkah regions by the end of the year. The city would get its share of the 500,000 government loans allocated every year, or about 41,000 a month.
The regions in Makkah include Jaaraneh over 6 million square meters, Makkah western gate 5 million square meters, Al-Gazzyat village in Al-Jmoum 771 square meters, the Crown Prince region 4.9 million square meters, Al-Sammad plan in Al-Jmoum 2.5 million square meters, Abdu Arwaah in Al-Jmoum 712 square meters, and Ain Al-Shams plan in Al-Jmoum 712 square meters.