RIYADH - The activities of the first day of the “Prospects for the Future of the Real Estate Sector” conference and exhibition in its second edition, which comes under the patronage of the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Real Estate General Authority, Majid Al-Hogail, kicked off.

During the first day’s sessions, the conference discussed three axes, including the future of the real estate sector in the Kingdom, real estate regulations and governance, investment, reality and challenges.

In the first dialogue session, the commissioned governor of the Real Estate General Authority, Tariq bin Ali Al-Hafiz, explained that the national strategy for the real estate sector, which was prepared by the authority and approved by the Council of Ministers, was based on four strategic pillars that make the Saudi real estate sector attractive and vibrant, characterized by culture and innovation.

Hefzy explained that the four strategic pillars are concerned with sector governance, as well as its empowerment and sustainability, in addition to monitoring and developing market effectiveness, and based on them, a number of priorities were worked out, and 18 initiatives were launched that serve this strategy.

In turn, the CEO of the National Housing Company, Eng. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Bati, stated that the real estate sector in general and the housing sector in particular, has witnessed many movements during the past 4 years, since the launch of the Vision 2030 programs included in the housing program.

Al-Bati added that what happened in the past years is a restructuring of the real estate sector, the development of new legislation and a clear vision that seeks to achieve ambitious goals, which include raising the ownership rate to 70 percent by 2030.

The CEO of the National Housing Company indicated that the company contributed to the rehabilitation of a large number of developers, indicating that work was carried out in 2017 with a small number of developers, and today we are working with more than 77 developers, and we target more than 500 real estate developers in the coming years.

For his part, the head of the Real Estate Committee in the Federation of Saudi Chambers, Muhammad bin Abdullah Al-Murshed, confirmed that the real estate sector is promising and touches a large segment of society, drawing attention to the fact that if the real estate sector moves, many important industries move, pointing to the presence of more than 150 vital projects from Contributions of the private sector in the field of housing in the Kingdom, in addition to more than 100 projects under construction.

In the second session, the lawyer and member of the board of directors of a number of bodies, Dr. Fahd Abu Hamed, stressed that the real estate sector is one of the most important investment sectors in the Kingdom, and it needs legislation compatible with that, detailing the rights, obligations and duties between the parties, stressing that the development continues to create an organized market. The issuance of real estate fund regulations comes as one of the elements of attracting investments and raising transparency and governance in the sector, explaining that the controls organized the work and contributed to reducing violations in the real estate market.

For his part, Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Al-Fayez, a lawyer and an arbitrator, during his participation in the session, indicated that the alternative judiciary represents ways to settle the dispute away from the official judiciary and resort to the courts, which relieves pressure on the judiciary, pointing to the existence of a clause in contracts under the name of resorting to arbitration as well as About mediation, reconciliation and executive bonds, and this is one of the alternative solutions to the official judiciary to avoid resorting to the courts in settling disputes.

For his part, the lawyer and legal advisor, Dr. Majid bin Abdul Rahman Al-Mozan, confirmed that the Kingdom is experiencing a regulatory momentum in the real estate sector, and this is in line with the vision to develop the real estate sector, indicating that there is a clear system that applies to everyone, and in light of this successive development, the investor must review Regulations and access to them, especially that they are easy and uncomplicated.

In the third session, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Economic Association, Hammoud bin Dhafer Al-Dosari, stated that real estate platforms contributed to the rapid access to various real estate data sources, noting that real estate, no matter how similar, it is not the same.

He explained that the most important characteristic of real estate indicators: the accuracy of the indicator and the accuracy of the data, and this leads us to a correct conclusion, pointing out that the most important indicators are the average price, and at the same time it is one of the most dangerous indicators; Because the drug is not homogeneous, and differs in nature, stressing that its impact on the individual is greater; For ease of selecting options, the investor also gives a good picture of the prices.

For her part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Economic Association, Dr. Noura bint Abdul Rahman Al-Yousef, explained that national companies must cooperate to overcome the challenges witnessed by the market, especially with the gap between supply and demand, noting that the real estate sector will witness during the coming period prosperity with the shift towards the sector due to Growth and policies that facilitate the process of ownership, as well as new ideas in building construction and modern technologies at low costs.

For his part, Dr. Saeed bin Nasser Al-Qahtani, a researcher specializing in finance and real estate investment, stated that the most important characteristic of real estate assets is exclusivity, indicating that each property has a special characteristic in age, area and location, all of which are specifications that determine the price, noting that the change in market value results from The conditions of supply and demand, stressing that the investor or interested in reading real estate indicators is only interested in seeing the change in the market value resulting from the interaction of the forces of supply and demand.

In turn, the real estate trainer and evaluator, Muhammad bin Ali Al-Bar, explained that the evaluation prevents the person from paying a greater value in the property, stressing that the evaluation enhances the confidence of the investor, whether at home or abroad, noting that the Evaluation Authority has been able during the past years to form alliances with recognized real estate organizations. internationally.

It is noteworthy that the conference is based on six main axes: (the future of the real estate sector in the Kingdom, real estate regulations and governance of the real estate sector, investment in the real estate sector - reality and challenges - localization and self-employment in the real estate sector, sustainability in the real estate sector, and real estate technology).

The conference and exhibition aims to provide a platform for scientific and practical discussion between experts, developers, real estate service providers and beneficiaries, enhance integration between the competent authorities, present legislative, regulatory and technical developments in the sector, and explore the prospects and future of the real estate sector in the Kingdom.