Real estate developers unanimously say it is difficult to determine the exact number of Kuwaitis living in apartments in private housing or investment properties, except from an official body that conducts a comprehensive and accurate survey of all regions of the country, noting at the same time that the recent figures prepared by Sharifa Al-Shalfan, Dr. Dari Al-Rasheed and Barak Al-Babtain, cannot be taken as an approach to reality, especially in the absence of updated statistics.
In this context, real estate expert Suleiman Al-Dulaijan stressed the importance of conducting comprehensive statistics to accurately know the number of those living in residential homes, since there is a discrepancy in their numbers.
Al-Dulaijan told the daily that the biggest percentage of citizens live in rented residential areas, while the percentage of those living in investment apartments ranges between 5 and 10 percent.
For their part, the participants in preparing the report published by Al-Qabas stressed the importance of shedding light on the housing issue in Kuwait with a more comprehensive view, reformulating the general form of the issue, and not appointing the Public Institution for Housing Welfare as the sole provider of housing care for citizens in light of their reluctance to live in vertical housing and some areas, and called for opening the door for the real estate developers to build housing models that meet the needs of citizens and are more sustainable for the state.
Municipal Council member and urban planning consultant Sharifa Al-Shalfan, one of the participants in preparing the “Kuwaiti Housing” report, said that its aim is to shed light on solving the housing problem of citizens with a more comprehensive view by reading the existing model and its consequences on affordability of housing and quality of life.
Al-Shalfan added she and her economic colleague, Dr. Dhari Suleiman Al-Rasheed and Architect Barak Al-Babtain have presented a comprehensive research report based on the available data and an extensive analytical effort from the institutional, legal, urban and economic aspects supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.
She pointed out that the report also shed light on the role of some laws that contributed to the lack of a balanced real estate market, including the impact of planning on the cost of living in the housing market, where our goal as a working group is to point out the importance of expanding the horizon of consideration of the housing issue in Kuwait, for example, in terms of supply , which is generally limited to the provision of land and rarely highlights the housing models available today and the diversity required.
She went on to say, the urban planning plays an important role in daily living by raising the quality of life, which is not seen as a priority, as adding green spaces and providing safe and fabricated transportation solutions and shaded lanes that facilitate the movement of pedestrians and bicycles have become today among the basics of sustainable urban planning, which promotes Quality of life for an individual.
Al-Shalfan indicated that the lack of real estate financing, as it is available in most countries of the world, and no housing alternatives regulated by a law for the owners’ union and steps that would contribute to providing homes for citizens such as a real estate developer, increases the difficulty of obtaining housing for the Kuwaiti family today and increases the burden on the Public Corporation for Housing Welfare.
In addition, reports issued by the Public Authority for Civil Information until June 30, revealed that there are 14,421 villas and houses in the country devoid of residents, representing 8.6% of the total number of homes in the six governorates while the statistics pointed out that there are 352,000 apartments in the country distributed between investment residential buildings and private housing.
It revealed that there are approximately 13,068 apartments in private housing areas inhabited by citizens and residents, most of which are in the Hawalli Governorate areas with a total of 4,952 apartments, indicating that 27.7% of the total apartments are vacant.
Regarding independent houses in the governorates, the commission indicated that there are 165,965 houses, most of which are in the Ahmadi governorate, which contains approximately 33.5 thousand houses, followed by the Farwaniya governorate with 29,3 thousand houses.
Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Kuwait University and researcher in econometrics and urban economics Dr. Dari Al-Rasheed stressed the importance of reconsidering the state’s concept of the housing issue and the citizens’ need for housing and work towards achieving development goals after it was proven that the existing approach to providing housing for Kuwaitis is unsustainable.
Al-Rasheed told the daily, that the housing policies are supposed to aim at achieving the affordability of housing, diversifying housing options and improving the quality of life. However, the current approach based on the housing care institution singling out the role of providing housing for Kuwaitis has proven ineffective in achieving these goals. Rather, the cost of housing has increased and shrunk. Residential choices and quality of life declined.
He pointed out that the key to the solution is to increase the housing supply by involving the private sector in the development of private housing along with the role of the institution, in addition to reviewing laws and regulations that limit supply such as separating land uses and minimum limits for plot areas and maximum density, easing these restrictions would increase supply within The current urban area so that the state can develop new lands outside it, and this also achieves a diversity of options available to suit the social and demographic characteristics of families.
