Ministry expands schemes and financing options to meet rising demand for citizens

TDT | Manama

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Housing and Urban Planning Minister, Her Excellency Amna Al Rumaihi, told Parliament yesterday that the rise in housing applications since 2022 is a ‘natural’ outcome of new requests entering the system each year, saying the ministry is widening eligibility rules and expanding housing schemes and finance in cooperation with the private sector to meet demand.

She said many applications have been served, yet new ones are coming in faster than before, particularly after the ministry, working with MPs, eased rules on ‘wife’s inheritance’ cases and adjusted income calculations so annual increments do not lead to changes or cancellations of files.

Criteria

The Minister added that any widening of criteria brings in more families than earlier estimates.

Al Rumaihi said traditional projects remain central to housing provision.

In Sitra Housing City, 500 homes are due to be handed over in December alongside 1,200 more under construction, while work is under way in Al Hidd and 372 units are being built in Khalifa Town, with roads and sewerage works carried out in parallel.

Loan schemes

On housing finance, she said extended loan schemes have enabled more than 10,000 citizens to obtain housing services from 2022 to today, a total she compared to two housing towns delivered within three years, supported by joint projects with developers.

These include 231 units in the Suhail project in Al Louzi, 76 units in the Al Wadi scheme in Wadi Al Buhair and 133 units in Madinat Salman, all priced to match state-backed housing finance and subsidised by the ministry.

Optional programme

She added that the second batch of the optional ‘Land and Loan’ programme is now being distributed, covering 804 residential plots with BD40,000 in subsidised finance based on application seniority, along with directives from His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to offer an extra BD10,000 on the BD70,000 full loan and BD3,000 grants linked to certain apartment schemes.

Requests dating back to 2002 remain under review, she said, but cannot all be handled through this programme alone.