He called on local authorities to present a vision until 2040

Suhail Al Mazrouei: The housing sector faces the problem of "providing land"

• Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei: “The lack of sufficient land for the next 40 or 50 years requires re-planning of cities.”

• The establishment of housing units for citizens comes within the Ministry's solutions to housing challenges.

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The Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei, stated that the housing sector is facing challenges that are considered the main reason for changing the housing strategy, and adopting new ones.

He told "Emirates Today": "At the top of the challenges faced by the Ministry's Zayed Housing Program is the presence of many accumulated housing requests, and the new strategy is currently working to address them all."

He added, during a media briefing recently organized by the ministry to announce the new policy for financing government housing program loans, that "the challenges include obtaining plots of land, settling land, and their locations, in addition to the fact that some of these plots are in mountainous areas, and others are places for water collection, Therefore, when allocating these lands, the Ministry works to protect them from water.”

He stressed that "the ministry has completed 44 dams and water canals within two years, since the merger of the ministries of energy and infrastructure, to protect land and housing," noting that "challenges exist on a continuous and renewed basis, while the ministry adapts its strategies to address them."

Al Mazrouei pointed out that "the establishment of housing units for citizens comes within the ministry's solutions to housing challenges, but it is not possible to impose a specific choice on citizens, and in the future we will face challenges in the Emirates regarding the number of plots of land."

He added, "It is the local authorities that work on allocating the lands, while the ministry determines the value of the housing assistance provided by the government as a loan to citizens, and then the owner of the housing assistance has the right to buy an existing apartment."

Regarding the old residential areas from which citizens moved to new housing in other areas, Al Mazrouei stated that “they are among the challenges facing the competent local authorities, as the lack of sufficient land for the next 40 or 50 years requires re-planning cities and making use of the lands.” Which included housing complexes for citizens, and they moved to housing in other areas, and therefore we are addressing the local authorities to provide us with a vision of the lands, not only for the next five years, but until the year 2040.”

He continued, "If a group of citizens desires to acquire housing units, in the future, the ministry will build a building for them that includes a number of apartments, but this is not proposed in the first phase of the new housing strategy, which includes single housing."

He pointed out that the new strategy extends until 2040, and during the next five years it will deal with all housing applications of the Sheikh Zayed Housing Program, and that new applications will have a role with the competent committee, stressing that “the number of approvals is governed by the available budget, and based on studies carried out by the program. On existing requests, the target will be well achieved.

During the media briefing, Al Mazrouei announced that the ministry intends to issue 13,000 housing loan decisions, during the next five years (2022-2026), at a cost of 11.5 billion dirhams, explaining that national banks and banks finance loans with 10.4 billion dirhams, and the Sheikh Zayed Housing Program is repaid. The cost of bank interest amounts to 1.1 billion dirhams, and the focus during the first three years will be mainly on covering the accumulated requests, within the framework of implementing the new policy for financing government housing programs loans recently approved by the Council of Ministers.

He said that the ministry, represented by the Sheikh Zayed Housing Program, will cooperate with national banks to finance the cost of housing decisions (loans) from banks, while the ministry pays the cost of interest resulting from the value of decisions on behalf of the citizen through allocated budgets, with the beneficiaries' commitment to pay the original loans to the banks. , as was previously practiced, and without the beneficiary incurring any additional expenses, which contributes to doubling the number of loan decisions that can be issued annually, especially during the next five years, in addition to the sustainability of financing through partnership with the private sector.

Al Mazrouei indicated that the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has coordinated with the Ministry of Finance, on defining financing options with the financing banks, the guarantees required to be provided by the federal government, and determining the costs involved and the implementation mechanism according to the best possible conditions.

Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei: “The lack of sufficient land for the next 40 or 50 years requires re-planning of cities.”

13,000 housing loan decisions, which the Ministry intends to issue during the next five years.

• “Energy and Infrastructure” completed 40 dams and a water canal within two years.

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