Saudi Gazette

Jeddah — The Ministry of Housing has given licenses to 60 companies to sell plots of land and housing units through the Wafi online platform.

The Wafi program is an online platform launched by the Housing Ministry to grant off-plan sales and leasing, organize relations between real estate developers and specialists in the sector, register title deeds, file complaints, and follow-up on services.

The Wafi committee consists of representatives of the ministries of housing, municipal and rural affairs, commerce and investment, and justice, as well as the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the private sector.

Wafi has created partnerships between landowners and developers so they can start projects immediately. They will also be issuing a separate document for Small and Medium Enterprises.

The Ministry of Housing hopes to provide 480,000 housing units by 2020. A large number of these units will be provided through the Wafi program.

In case a project is stopped, the Wafi committee will look into it and ensure that the clients get refunds, said Mohammad Al-Gazwani, secretary general of the Wafi committee.

He was speaking to investors at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.

He said that in case of manipulations, the case will be transferred to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution.

Developers need to deposit 20 percent of the value of property in Wafi’s account. However, companies making deals with the Ministry of Housing may use this amount in the project.