RIYADH — The Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) has instituted a new transformation system that took three years to yield results, and it took a dedicated team and innovative products to put REDF in the forefront. The three years were fundamental for REDF to make the new system work after announcing the new system in 2017.

Before 2017, REDF had many accumulated challenges to overcome. More than 500,000 citizens were on the waiting list to acquire their mortgage support with an average waiting period of 12 to 15 years to claim the loan. REDF had the capability to only support 20,000 citizens per year, which made it impossible to achieve the Vision 2030 of having 60% of Saudis own their homes by 2020 and 70% by 2030.

Mansour Bin Madi, CEO of REDF, with his team of experts in REDF had to find new innovative ways to accommodate this long waiting list in just 3 years to achieve the 2020 (60%) target; hence, they developed a new loaning system (subsidized) transforming from direct lending from REDF to indirect lending through renowned Saudi financial institutions whereby REDF subsidized the (profit rate) of mortgage loans up to SR500,000.

“The perfect harmony between product innovation and proper communication is key to success,” said Majid Roshdi, chief of marketing and corporate communications in REDF. The marketing and communications team played a very important role under the direct supervision of the CEO by conveying the new REDF system with its innovative products’ offers.

It targeted the right audience accurately with the proper messaging, hence, reaching 87% of awareness for REDF within the targeted society. All of this came after many successful activities and campaigns consisting of REDF transformation campaign, 30+ governmental entities targeted Expos, Euromoney’s Saudi housing finance live online series conveying the success of the entire Saudi housing program, as well as various product-centric and social awareness campaigns around REDF.

REDF highly benefited from the resources and capabilities of its dedicated team as well as its financial and real estate partners. REDF was able to develop an award winning digitized model (Real Estate Advisory) connecting it with all financial partners.

This helped in building great confidence with the Saudi target audience making the journey to own their homes easier and faster. REDF was able to clear out the entire backlog of 500,000 citizens on the waiting list from 2017 till 2020, and achieved the 60% ownership rate of Saudi beneficiaries by end of 2020.

REDF future plans and projects are huge and ambitious to meet the Vision 2030 goals. The key objectives will be financial sustainability, strengthening the digital infrastructure and expanding the financing programs keeping the Saudi citizen well-being in the core of all its programs and communications. — SG