RIYADH — The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC) has signed a strategic partnership refinancing deal of SR1 billion with Deutsche Gulf Finance (DGF), the leading real estate financing company. The transaction is the first in SRC’s strategic plan to help ‘unlock’ the Saudi housing finance market by increasing liquidity to enable lenders to offer more accessible home buying solutions.

Minister of Housing Majed Bin Abdullah Al-Hugail said during the signing ceremony, “This is an exciting first step toward our goal of unlocking the Saudi housing market and increasing home ownership among citizens. This type of cooperation and partnership is what Vision 2030 intends to build on as we develop and expand our economy.”

“This transaction is just the first in a series that will see SRC increase available funding to financial institutions so they can increase mortgage financing availability to Saudis,” said Fabrice Susini, chief executive officer, SRC. “Our role is to make it possible for the average Saudi to obtain finance so they can own their own home.”

The portfolio acquisition and short-term financing transaction, which includes a warehousing facility, will allow DGF to improve current and future lending ability within the Kingdom. Notably, DGF offers a variety of financing solutions to encourage real estate ownership among Saudis through innovative Shariah-compliant products.

“We are delighted to have been selected by the Saudi Real Estate Refinancing Company to sign the first strategic partnership agreement as a way to reinforce the public and private sector partnerships. We are all collaborating to implement the goals of NTP 2020 and realize Vision 2030 by increasing homeownership and reducing the financing costs by providing the needed liquidity to more people” said Suliman Azzabin, chief executive officer at Deutsche Gulf Finance.

The landmark deal reiterates the commitment of the Kingdom’s Ministry of Housing to offer more accessible housing finance solutions, which would directly benefit the homebuyers and facilitate market growth.

SRC, which is fully owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), was established in 2017 to create a secondary home finance market in Saudi Arabia. The secondary market refers to transactions where SRC act as an intermediary between lenders and investors. As an intermediary, SRC acquires, aggregates, and packages portfolios of financing into mortgage backed securities to sell to domestic and international investors. Such transactions will provide lenders with liquidity that will help grow and sustain the real estate financing market.

This step comes as SRC’s efforts among other government and private sector organizations to contribute in the realization of Vision 2030’s housing goals. One of Vision 2030 objectives is to increase home ownership to 52% in 2020 through developing the real estate market and increase the sector’s contribution the GDP. While SRC seeks to enable lenders to offer more accessible funding to more people, the size of the mortgage market is expected to move from SR 280 billion in 2017 to reach SR 500 billion by 2020. — SG