Saudi Arabia's Monetary Authority (SAMA) has recently published data showing an increase of 60 percent in contracts for land financing in January 2022 compared with December 2021.
The hike coincides with ongoing developments in residential real estate regulation and legislation.
Residential real estate contracts for individuals increased by 2 percent over the previous month, while contracts for apartments, villas, and lands reached 16,700 with a value exceeding 12.4 billion riyals ($3.3 billion).
Residential villas accounted for 9.6 billion (77 percent) of the total funding, apartments for 2.2 billion riyals (18 percent), and residential lands for 646 million (5 percent).
During the past month, 98 percent of residential real estate financing was provided by banks.
In 2021, finance companies and banks offered a total of 206,000 contracts worth 156.3 billion riyals ($41.6 billion). In terms of number of contracts, 2020 saw a record growth of 295,500 contracts worth 140.7 billion riyals ($37.5 billion).
Approximately 179,000 contracts totaling 79.1 billion were funded in 2019 - 3.5 times more than in 2018.
The end of 2018 saw financing loans recorded at around 50,400 contracts with a total value of 29.5 billion, compared to 30,800 contracts worth 21 billion in 2017.
