Construction of 70833 housing in Mecca

The Makkah region has announced the implementation of residential projects on the first day of the new Gregorian year. Sultan Al Dosari, spokesman of Makkah region, said that the pace of work is accelerating to build 70,833 units by the Ministry of Housing or secretariats of regions. “This issue coincided with solving the problem of the shortage in government lands with the efforts of Makkah’s infringements committees, which resulted in retrieving 220 million square meters of land worth SR 86 billion,” said Al Dosari. He added that the Ministry of Housing and the different secretariats were handed these lands for the purpose of implementing housing developmental projects. “Housing projects are a positive step toward radically solving the problem of the growing demand on houses. These steps came in accordance with the directions of Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal and in compliance with the orders of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” he said, stressing that they target citizens who are qualified to access loans of the real estate development fund and others wishing to own residential units with affordable monthly payments, as well as those qualified by the Ministry of Social Affairs and other persons reimbursed for their expropriated properties for the benefit of developing slum neighborhoods. In the same context, the Ministry of Housing announced the implementation of 15,980 residential units in Jeddah, starting with the first of two projects in the city, the Prince Fawaz neighborhood project to build 10,838 residential units, and the airport project that provides 5,142 residential units. The two projects include the building of 18 mosques, 32 kindergartens, and 30 schools of various grades, in addition to security stations, health and post office centers, public libraries, shopping malls, sports stadiums and public parks. Prince Fawaz project is located on a land of 567 million sq.m. where a previous housing project still exists, but the remaining space available is 3.9 million sq.m. The second project is located on 2 million sq. m. of land. The ministry intends also to embark on two housing projects in two of the provinces of Makkah, Al Qunfudah, where the ministry will build 593 residential units provided with the necessary public utilities on an area of 597.7 thousand sq. m., and Al Kharma with the building of 260 units with facilities on an area of 231 thousand sq. m. On the other hand, the Jeddah Development and Urban Regeneration Company (JDURC) — a government agency owned by the Jeddah Municipality — ventured affordable housing projects by launching two projects to build two residential districts in the north and south of Jeddah, which will provide 50 thousand residential units. The company began the implementation of the first project with its integrated services and facilities to meet the needs of all classes of society. It recently launched construction works in the Suburb project in the Gulf of Salman to the north of Jeddah, and embarked on the implementation of the first phase, which includes 5 thousand residential units. The expected delivery time of the first 1,000 housing units is after 16 months from now. The suburb project includes 1,250 buildings, with 25,000 units on an area of 3,008,675 sq. m. It combines 24 mosques, a hospital, two medical centers, water treatment station, waste water treatment station, one Red Crescent center, police station, a center for persons with special needs and 7 schools for boys, and further 7 for girls, as well as a school for the memorization of the holy Qur’an, commercial markets, a ballroom, restaurants, galleries, and other facilities. JDURC allocated 52 percent of the land for houses, 11 percent for malls, shopping centers and public utilities, and 37 percent for roads, open and entertainment spaces, gardens and parking lots. There are other projects being launched with partnership of the private sector such as Wahaet Makkah (Makkah oasis) project by Al Balad Al Ameen company of Makkah municipality, 14 km away from the Grand Mosque on an area of 670 thousand sq. m. to build 4,000 units. Construction works already started with the first phase of the project. It is worth mentioning that Land Recovery Committee in Jeddah Governorate, with the cooperation of infringement committees and other competent authorities, recovered 80 million sq. m. of illegally acquired land by an individual who has tricked people into thinking he owns the land. The person in question divided the land, planted it with trees and opened a ten-meter road. But under the direction of Prince Mishaal bin Majed, Jeddah governor, the committee removed all coordinates of the site after notifying the aggressor more than three times. Source:Arabnews