During a press conference held on the sidelines of the Innovation in Social Housing Conference and Exhibition, the Minister of Housing and Urban Planning announced the launch of the “Ambition” and “Off-Plan Sales” programs, as well as “Private Land Development Rights.”

• The second version of the “Bayti Real Estate” platform has been launched with additional features and benefits.
• Three Memoranda of Understanding signed to develop a project to provide 3,000 housing units in Khalifa City

As part of the executive plan to implement the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of the Kingdom, may God protect and preserve him, to accelerate the pace of housing projects to provide 50,000 new housing units, Her Excellency Mrs. Amna bint Ahmed Al Romaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, announced during the opening of the Innovation in Social Housing Sector Conference the launch of 4 new housing programs aimed at increasing the pace of housing project implementation in partnership with the private sector, and contributing to diversifying and increasing the real estate inventory in the Kingdom in a way that enables citizens benefiting from the housing finance program to obtain diverse options to acquire suitable housing.

This came during the press conference held on the sidelines of the opening of the Innovation in Social Housing Sector Conference and Exhibition, organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and the Housing Bank, under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, may God protect him, during the period from 23 to 25 April, in the presence of a number of officials and media representatives.

The Minister explained that the new programs announced during the opening session of the conference include the “Tomouh” program, the “Off-Plan Sale” program for beneficiaries of Government Land Development Rights projects, the “Private Land Development Rights” program, in addition to launching the second version of the “Baiti” real estate platform, which comes with additional features and advantages.

During the press conference, Minister Al Romaihi reviewed the details of the new housing programs, noting that the mechanism of the “Tomouh” program is based on granting citizens benefiting from “Tas’heel” and “Tas’heel +” financing to purchase an apartment an additional option represented by obtaining an additional financing amount from the “Tas’heel” program options worth 20 thousand Bahraini dinars after 10 years from the date of benefiting from the main financing to purchase the apartment, in the event that beneficiaries wish to sell the apartment and obtain another property that suits their needs.

The Minister stated that this program aims to encourage citizens to purchase freehold apartments from projects provided by the private sector through the “Tas’heel” program options, while ensuring the provision of advantages that allow them the possibility of future expansion in purchasing a larger property by increasing their financing capacity after ten years from the date of entitlement to the main financing to purchase the apartment. She added that the Ministry is in the process of completing the necessary procedures for the official launch of this program, and the criteria and provisions for accepting applications to benefit from it will be announced after their approval in the coming period.

In a related context, the Minister of Housing and Urban Planning said that the Ministry launched the “Off-Plan Sale” project within the “Government Land Development Rights” program, in a step considered unprecedented at the level of housing projects provided for citizens’ benefit. She indicated that this program allows real estate development companies to sell project units immediately after completing the procedures for awarding the project tender and finalizing contractual and technical matters, and opening reservations by the executing company, thus contributing to enabling citizens to purchase units directly before the final completion of construction works.

The Minister stated that this program achieves benefits for both the citizen and the real estate developer. From the citizen’s perspective, he will be able to choose the location of his housing unit in the implemented project at an early stage, and thus allocate housing financing to him proactively upon reserving the unit in the project, in addition to being informed of the components and facilities of his housing unit.

As for real estate developers, the program provides great flexibility in securing financial liquidity to construct project units, as well as starting early marketing of the project units, providing them with sufficient guarantees to sell units before the completion of construction works in the project.

The Minister pointed out that the “Hai Al Naseem” project in Salman City in the Northern Governorate, and the “Al Wadi” project in Al Buhair area, whose units were announced for reservation at the Innovation in Social Housing Sector Exhibition, represent the first projects of the “Off-Plan Sale” program, where the units of both projects were offered for reservation and allocation by citizens benefiting from housing finance program options, through selecting the appropriate housing unit by reserving on the project map, and citizens can benefit from the units of these projects by visiting the exhibition.

In a related context, the Minister of Housing and Urban Planning announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry and the companies “Naseej,” Chinese “CMEC,” “Retal,” “Almoayyed,” and Malaysian “WCT Berhad,” to implement approximately 3,000 housing units in Khalifa City, which is the largest project within the Government Land Development Rights program since its launch.

The Minister said that this memorandum comes as a proactive step with the companies nominated to bid for purchasing tenders to implement the Khalifa City project, which is scheduled to be offered during the upcoming phase, and includes the implementation of approximately 3,000 housing units and apartments, in addition to infrastructure services, on areas reaching 1.6 million square meters within the project. She stated that this project is one of the strategic projects through which the Ministry seeks to meet a large number of housing applications for those wishing to benefit from financing options.

The Minister confirmed that the projects listed within the Government Land Development Rights program track are witnessing continuous progress in terms of offering tenders and contracting with real estate companies for implementation, in light of significant interest from real estate development companies to participate in the program, which encourages the Ministry to continue efforts to implement more projects during the upcoming phase, as this track represents one of the options for the sustainability of the social housing sector in the Kingdom alongside the housing finance program.

Regarding the “Private Land Development Rights” program, Her Excellency explained that this program aims to support real estate companies in the Kingdom to increase real estate projects at prices that match the value of housing financing obtained by citizens. The program mechanism is based on enabling real estate development companies to build housing projects on their lands, in exchange for allocating them to those wishing to benefit from housing finance program options, provided that the government supports procedures related to the real estate companies, as well as manages the project and assists in marketing it to beneficiaries of housing financing.

The Minister indicated that this program represents a new qualitative shift in the journey of partnership between the public and private sectors to provide housing services to citizens, as it establishes a new phase of government support for private sector companies to provide projects directed to the social housing sector at prices that suit citizens’ housing financing. The program will contribute to achieving optimal utilization of private sector resources to support the path of providing housing services to citizens, and thus achieving the goal of increasing real estate inventory.

With regard to the launch of the second version of the “Baiti” real estate platform, the Minister stated that the Housing Bank has worked since the launch of the first phase of the platform at last year’s housing finance exhibition to add more electronic features and advantages to the platform, with the aim of expanding support for citizens to choose the appropriate type of financing from participating financing banks, and reserve their housing units from projects offered on the electronic platform, saving them time and effort, and facilitating their selection of suitable housing that meets their needs in terms of location and type.

The Minister reviewed the new features introduced on the “Baiti” platform, noting that for the first time the property reservation feature will be activated online through an application, where the application visitor will be able to pay the property reservation amount, sign the reservation contract, and receive the payment balance digitally through the application. This feature will be activated for the first time in the “Al Buhair Housing Project,” which is also offered on the platform, noting that the Housing Bank cooperated in this regard with the companies “Benefit” and “CrediMax” to activate this feature.

Regarding the second advantage in the second phase of the platform, it includes linking the application with the “Developed Electronic Key eKey 2.0” service recently launched by the Information and eGovernment Authority, enabling verification and confirmation of application users’ information, with the aim of providing an integrated high-quality digital experience for citizens.

The “Baiti” platform also provides an “Interactive Financing Calculator” feature, which enables citizens to set their plan to finance the purchase of their housing service digitally, by calculating the financing value and financing offers available from participating financing banks on the platform.

On the other hand, Minister Amna Al Romaihi announced that the Ministry has begun accepting applications to benefit from the “Tas’heel+” program, which was announced by the Ministry last week, and provides a new package of financing options to obtain suitable housing, with a maximum financing value of up to 91 thousand Bahraini dinars. She noted that the Ministry and Housing Bank pavilion at the exhibition has witnessed significant turnout since opening the door for citizens to visit the exhibition.

The Minister indicated that the Innovation in Social Housing Sector Exhibition represents a suitable opportunity for citizens to learn about the advantages of “Tas’heel +” financing as well as the types of additional financing provided by the Ministry to citizens, and to begin identifying suitable properties for purchase by visiting the Ministry’s platform and the real estate companies present at the exhibition and learning about the Government Land Development Rights program projects offered at the exhibition, namely “Hai Al Naseem,” which is being implemented with Dilmun Gateway Company in Salman City, in addition to the “Al Buhair” project implemented with Al Saraya Company, as well as the real estate projects offered by real estate companies’ platforms, calling on citizens to visit the Ministry’s pavilion during the period from today until the evening of next Friday, 25 April, to benefit from the available options and offers.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning had recently announced the launch of “Tas’heel+” financing, with numerous advantages, including the possibility of purchasing a unit, apartment, or residential plot, in addition to providing the option of purchasing a plot and building it, with a flexible repayment mechanism divided into two options chosen by the citizen, based on the value of the calculated installment plan. The first track, with a maximum financing value of 81 thousand, begins with deducting only 20% of the beneficiary’s income for 5 years, then the deduction rate increases to 25% after 5 years, reaching a maximum of 30% after 10 years from the start of deduction until full repayment of installments over 30 years.

The second track, with a maximum financing value of 91 thousand, is similar to the first track, with differences in the monthly installment deduction percentages, where the deduction rate for the first five years starts at 25%, increases to 30% after 5 years, and ends at 35% after 10 years until the remaining installments are repaid over 30 years. She reiterated that choosing one of the two tracks depends on the citizen’s preference, and citizens will be provided with the full schedule of monthly installment payments from the beginning of benefiting from the service until the repayment of the remaining installments before disbursing the financing amounts to citizens.

Citizens whose monthly income ranges from 600 to 1200 dinars can benefit from this financing option to obtain housing, and the financing value will be calculated based on the beneficiary’s monthly income at the date of application submission.