“The successful sukuk issuance demonstrates confidence among the investor community and trust in a robust housing market in the kingdom and more broadly a resilient Saudi economy,” Majed Al Hogail, the country’s minister of housing and chairman of SRC, said.
Over 30 per cent of the issuance was subscribed by a mix of asset managers, a pension fund, government funds and insurance companies.
SRC was co-founded by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund and the Ministry of Housing in October 2017 to boost home ownership in the biggest Arab economy.
It does not lend directly to end-users, but provides liquidity to the home loans market by buying mortgages from banks and other lenders, freeing them up to extend more loans to the sector.
DUBAI: The total amount of mortgage loans provided by Saudi banks increased to SR15.27 billion ($4.07 billion) in November 2020, up 79 percent compared to the same month in 2019, according to the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).
Villa loans accounted for 81 percent of the mortgages, while the total number of contracts in the month was 30,017.
The huge increase in demand for mortgages is part of the Saudi government’s aim to increase home ownership in the Kingdom to 70 percent as part of the Vision 2030 targets, up from 50 percent in 2018. Khalil Ibrahim Al-Sedais, office managing partner for KPMG in Riyadh, said: “The lending space in the Saudi banking sector has been rife with continued growth in mortgage financing throughout the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) environment.
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