RIYADH — The volume of new residential mortgages for individuals provided by banks and institutions continued to grow in the third quarter of 2019, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) revealed Tuesday in its latest monthly report.

The number of contracts in September 2019 jumped 353% with 16,816 contracts with increase of more than 13 thousand contracts, compared to 3714 contracts in September 2018.

The new residential loans in September 2019 grew 249% based on year by 7.125 billion, compared to about 2 billion in September 2018. This increase is more than 5 billion for new loans in September 2019, which is about 37% compared to August 2019.

According to the SAMA report, mortgage loans have jumped more than 3 times over this year. The total number of residential loans for individuals during the first quarter of 2019 reached 31,462 contracts with growth of more than 221% compared to the same period in 2018, which was 9,790 contracts. In the first quarter of 2019, also, the value of contracts has reached SR15 billion compared to SR6.4 billion in the same quarter in 2018, with growth of 133%.

The second quarter of 2019 grew by 261% with 37,000 contracts compared to 10,000 contracts in the second quarter 2018. While the volume of contracts grew in the third quarter by 160% reached 16.5 billion compared to 6.3 billion in 2018, while the volume mortgage grew by 217% with 19.5 billion Riyals compared to 10.6 billion in the third quarter of 2018.

SAMA report explains that the total number of individual's mortgage reached 113,603 contracts with 51 billion Riyals to the end of the third quarter of 2019 supported by government housing programs, compared to the same period with 31 thousand contracts with 18,928 billion in 2018. This growth exceeded 266% in the number of contracts and about 169% in the volume of loans, compared to the same quarters in 2018.

the report, the total number of new residential contracts for Saudi families during the nine months of this year 2019 exceeded the total number of last three years. As the total contracts until the end of the third quarter of this year is 113,603 contracts, compared to 103,603 contracts during the last three years 2016, 2017 and 2018. The average of contracts per month in 2019 is about 14,000 contracts with 7 billion, compared to about 2,000 contracts in 2018 with average of 2 billion per month.

The report points out that, approximately 93% of the value of mortgage contracts for individuals in September 2019 were through commercial banks, while about 7% offered by finance companies. In September, the volume of financing villas is the largest proportion by 5.8 billion, which is 81% of the value of mortgages, while apartments is 12% with 823 million. The financing of purchase land came in third place by 7% with a value of 495 million Riyals.

"SAMA" report showed that the number of subsidized contracts supported by governmental housing programs in September 2019 is 15,332 contracts, which is more than 91% of the total contracts. The total value of these contracts is more than SR6.3 billion, about 88% of the total value for contracts in September 2019.

On the other side, the total number of residential mortgage contracts offered to individuals in 2018 amounted 50,496 contracts with value of SR29.5 billion Riyals, and in 2017 about 30,833 contracts with value of SR21,025 billion, while 2016 was about 22,259 mortgage contracts worth SR17,096 billion. — SG