Khaled Al-Solaiman
I HELD my horses for a long time before writing about the housing financing programs announced by the Ministry of Housing. At the outset, I thought that the financing programs were optional and not compulsory for those who do not want them.
I never for a second believed that the ministry would launch these programs before levying charges on the undeveloped white land, thus puncturing the inflated real estate balloon and bringing down land prices.
I have no explanation for the introduction of the financing programs in the light of the current high prices of real estate except that the objective was not to bring down the exorbitant prices but to force the citizen to buy at high prices from real estate investors. This means that the citizen will become a hostage for a long time to the long-term loans provided to him or her to buy a house at an exaggerated price.
It reminds me of the facilities extended by banks to the investors during the stock market boom. They sold shares to the citizens at high prices, which served the interests of the sharksm leaving the investors crushing under the burden of heavy loans.
Frankly speaking, I hoped that the ministry would, instead, extend its financing programs to the real estate developers to execute housing projects that will ensure enough supply in the market to meet the rising demand for housing units.
Such a decision would have brought down the prices of real estate to realistic levels, but this did not happen.
Any observer will become skeptical when he or she reads the names of the people in charge of marketing the financing programs. They are almost the very people who sold the shares to the citizens to invest in the stock exchange.
What pacifies me is the fact that the citizens are too clever to be bitten twice from the same hole. They will, therefore, not fall easy prey to the ministry’s financing programs.
