Dubai: Saudi Arabia's wealth management giant Public Investment Fund has launched a new real estate company to build "world-class" integrated communities across the kingdom.
The new entity, Roshn, will follow international benchmarks in community planning and design, in its bid to meet growing domestic housing demand and help "localize" global best practices to raise standards of living.
Until now, Saudi Arabia has mostly relied on its privately owned property developers to create the sustained supply of new housing that the market clearly needs. But over the recent past, the kingdom has assigned the highest priority to create the housing stock, setting aside sizeable funds to support all such programmes.
Dedicated mortgage firms have been tasked with making funds available to interested property owners – and thus ensure investments get channeled into the domestic market itself rather than seek opportunities elsewhere.
The creation of Roshn takes a leaf from Dubai’s strategy of having government-mandated developers to engage in creating possibilities on the property side as well as in destination making. This is what Nakheel, Emaar and Meraas have done through the last decade and more.
* Roshn will develop urban communities that can be accessed by Saudi citizens.
* The construction of these properties, together with the requirement for supporting infrastructure, amenities and ongoing maintenance services, will also contribute in creating jobs in the different construction areas in the Kingdom.
