Saudi Homebuilding Promises Undermined by Land Gifts: Mortgages

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is paying the price for his own generosity as past land giveaways undermine his plans to build half a million homes and open up the country’s mortgage market.

State gifts of urban land complete with roads, water and power have left the government with almost no space of its own to develop within Saudi Arabia’s cities, according to Adnan Ghosheh, an adviser to the country’s Housing Ministry. That will hold back building plans as the government chooses between buying back city plots that have been inflated by years of speculation or paying a premium to build in the desert.