Saudis queue up for mortgages as kingdom kick-starts market

Saudis queue up for mortgages as kingdom kick-starts market

High school teacher Othman Abdel Jabbar never thought he would be able to own a house in his native Saudi Arabia, where high prices and a lack of mortgage finance meant the resource-rich Gulf state lagged behind its G20 counterparts when it came to home ownership.

But last month, Abdel Jabbar, 36, walked into a one-stop shop set up by the housing ministry to facilitate home ownership. They checked out his finances, directed him to a bank kiosk where he could apply for a government-subsidised mortgage and then to real estate developers to help him find a house.

Two weeks later, Abdel Jabbar came back to sign his mortgage contract for a SR1.3mn ($340,000) home. “It was beautiful,” he said. “They made it easy.”

Saudi Arabia is experiencing a housing and mortgage boom, reflecting a government drive to boost home ownership as part of efforts to shake up the oil kingdom’s economy and its ultraconservative society.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s day to day ruler, has adopted an iron-fisted approach, jailing critics and attracting western opprobrium for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. But the government’s broader reforms, which have included ending restrictions on women driving and on entertainment,