Muscat, Amna bint Ahmed Al Rumaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, participated in a panel discussion for the housing ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The session was hosted as part of the activities of the first Gulf Housing week, on the sidelines of the 21st Meeting of GCC Officials Responsible for Housing.
The session discussed the latest developments in housing policies and plans within the GCC.
The Minister said that the social housing sector is witnessing many challenges, especially regarding the growing of demands for housing services, which required the continuous development of plans and programmes to achieve the goal of sustaining the provision of housing for citizens.
Al Rumaihi noted that GCC countries are moving steadily towards achieving this goal by expanding the diversification of housing policies, as well as adopting creative solutions in partnership with the Private sector.
The minister said that Bahrain has given priority to engaging the private sector in social housing a high priority as part of its government programmes, stating that the ministry's current plans are based on three main tracks, which are financing, government lands development rights, and the continuation of existing housing city projects.
She noted that the financing options allows citizens to buy housing units, build them, or buy land and build them, along with the opportunity to join a group to buy or build a joint property; as well as the right to buy or build a property near their relatives.
The session highlighted that the government lands development rights programme witnessed a successful launch, through launching "Suhail", the first housing project of the programme.
Citizens have shown interest in buying units from the Suhail project during the second edition of the Housing Finance Exhibition, which was held last June, she said, noting that 93% of the project’s total units were reserved within 10 days.
Al Rumaihi said that the ministry is currently working on expanding the projects of this programme, by implementing two new projects in Salman Town and Khalifa Town.
Source: Bahrain News Agency