Rents and house prices surged in Saudi Arabia's two main cities in the first quarter of the year, underlining the need for affordable housing in the kingdom.
The rise is feeding through to an increase in rents in Riyadh and Jeddah for both villas and apartments, according to reports released yesterday by Jones Lang LaSalle.
"In Riyadh average villa prices have increased across all districts, however, districts in the north and west have experienced greater increases than those to the east and south," wrote the property services firm in the reports. The average sale price of apartments has risen in the east, south and west of the capital, it said.
Villa rents rose by 8 per cent in the first quarter from the same period last year, with rents for high-income villas in the west and centre of the city rising the most robustly.
Apartment rents had grown even more strongly, up 13 per cent year-on-year.
In Jeddah, average sale prices of villas climbed 11 per cent to 4,600 Saudi riyals (Dh4,505) per square foot in the first quarter of the year from the same period last year. Sale prices of apartments also rose.
Villa rents in Jeddah's popular western region increased 4 per cent during the year. Rents for apartments surged even faster, up 10 per cent.
Rising housing costs are likely to raise pressure on the government to do more to help low-income households.
Jones Lang LaSalle expects 23,000 new residential units to be completed in Riyadh before the end of the year, with a further 16,000 units in Jeddah. But only a minority of the projects are likely to be aimed at lower earners.
For many years, the kingdom's property market has failed to cater for surging affordable housing demand from a rapidly growing young population.
In a bid to bridge the shortfall, low-income housing was put forward as a central plank of King Abdullah's 458 billion riyals spending package, unveiled last year, to raise living standards among its citizens. Some signs of progress are emerging, however.
The first affordable housing project in Riyadh is expected to deliver 2,000 units over the next five years, Jones Lang LaSalle said.
In Jeddah, the ministry of housing has identified two locations for affordable housing projects but details have yet to emerge on what the projects involved, it said.
In a rare private-sector project aimed at the affordable housing segment, the Henaki group has started a 1,000-unit building scheme in Jeddah's Kandarah area, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.
The scheme is believed to be one of the first large-scale projects targeting low to middle-income families.
tarnold@thenational.ae
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
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Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
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Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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