The Director General of the Kuwait Credit Bank, Salah Al-Mudhaf, said that the bank responsible for lending citizens to build and renovate their homes needs 16 billion dinars (52.8 billion dollars) to finance housing loans until 2035, calling for a review of the issue. Housing philosophy in Kuwait “to provide sustainable solutions”.
Al-Mudhaf said in an interview with Archyde.com that “the situation today is not stable. There is no stability and there is no possibility for (the bank) to continue providing loans in this way in the long term. The housing philosophy must be reconsidered to develop sustainable solutions.”
The Credit Bank is a government bank established in the sixties of the last century under the name of the Credit Bank, and it is currently providing interest-free loans to eligible citizens for housing care to build, buy or renovate houses, with a capital of 3 billion dinars.
The value of the loan offered by the bank to the citizen to build or buy his residence is 70 thousand dinars. It has been suffering for years from a lack of liquidity due to the increase in housing demands, which has affected large segments of Kuwaiti citizens who consider the housing problem one of their most important priorities.
The number of Kuwaitis increased during the last ten years by regarding 350 thousand to reach regarding 1.47 million people, constituting 32% of the total population of 4.6 million people, and the expatriates and foreigners constitute the rest.
The state guarantees the right to residential care for the Kuwaiti family, and provides them for this purpose a piece of land with complete facilities. It also grants the head of the family a government loan from the Credit Bank of 70,000 dinars without interest to be repaid over a period of up to 60 years.
The loan is repaid in installments not exceeding 100 dinars or 10% of the salary, whichever is higher.
100 thousand requests
With the increase in the number of citizens, the number of housing requests has reached regarding 100,000, which means that 100,000 Kuwaiti families are still waiting to obtain suitable housing, and the waiting lists have extended to more than 17 years, in light of the state’s inability to fulfill all these requests due to the scarcity of financial liquidity.
Real estate in Kuwait
Al-Mudhaf said that in neighboring countries, governments are satisfied with guaranteeing people with limited incomes and providing them with the right to obtain housing, “while in Kuwait, everyone takes, whether it is from low-income, middle-income or high-income people.”
He added that reconsidering the housing philosophy needs a study to determine who deserves the provision of housing by the state, considering that this step will save a lot of money for the state.
He said that reconsidering the housing philosophy requires the government’s cooperation with the National Assembly and also needs to “prepare” the citizen to accept it, provided that the matter is gradual.
Al-Mudhaf pointed out the need for this to coincide with the adoption of the real estate finance law that allows commercial banks to finance citizens’ homes, the real estate developer law, as well as the liberalization of residential lands to allow private sector companies to enter this market, considering that these three steps would provide a “sustainable solution” to the housing problem. .
