Saudi Arabia undertakes momentous social reforms in conjunction with Vision 2030 — the ongoing large-scale project known as Sakani program that comes under the Kingdom's Building Technology Stimulus Program constitutes an essential part of these reforms. By offering different financing solutions, Sakani program significantly contributes to boosting Saudis' home ownership by increasing Saudi home owners' percentage from only 47 percent to 52 percent by 2020.
In 2018, over 300,000 residential products were provided to Saudi citizens by the ministry of Housing, which assigned setting up the villas and townhouses in Riyadh, Jeddah, Buraidah, and Al Khobr to four property developers, in partnership with the private sector. Each project includes facilities, mosques, parks, and government agencies. The Real Estate Development Fund provided 280.000 Saudi families, from different income groups and family sizes, with financial assistance.
Housing units are transparently allotted to Saudi citizens through the ministry's website upon publication on a monthly basis for three years.
Top priority is given to the most in need cases, including widows, divorcees, those with special needs and financial difficulties.
The new system is projected to bring down the beneficiaries' waiting list at the Real Estate Development Fund by 48 percent, leading in turn to reduce the waiting period for homes to 5 years instead of 11 years. This will be through speeding up construction and providing Saudi citizens with affordable yet good housing. Most of Sakani's housing units are constructed using non-traditional techniques that each unit is built in only two days, as reported.
In 2018, the first '48-hour' house was built in Dammam and has been already delivered to its new owner. Stimulating the construction industry would help to boost the Kingdom's economy in alignment with the principal objectives of the national Vision 2030 reform plan
