31/01/2022
31/01/2022
‘Reconsider housing philosophy’
KUWAIT CITY, Jan 31: The Director- General of the Credit Bank, Salah Al- Mudhaf, said the bank responsible for lending money to citizens to build and renovate their homes needs 16 billion dinars (52.8 billion dollars) to finance housing loans until 2035, and called for a review of the housing philosophy in Kuwait “to provide sustainable solutions,” reports Al-Jarida daily. Al-Mudhaf during an interview with Reuters, said “the current situation is not stable. There is no stability and there is no possibility for (the bank) to continue to provide loans in this way in the long term … The housing philosophy must be reconsidered to develop sustainable solutions.”
With the increase in the number of citizens, the number of housing requests has reached about 100,000, which means that 100,000 Kuwaiti families are still waiting to obtain suitable housing, and the waiting lists have extended to more than 17 years, in light of the state’s inability to fulfill all these requests due to the scarcity of financial liquidity. Al-Mudhaf stated that in neighboring countries, governments are satisfied with sponsoring people with limited income and providing them with the right to obtain housing, “while in Kuwait, everyone takes it, whether it is from low-income, middle-income or high-income people.”
He added that reconsidering the housing philosophy needs a study to determine who deserves the provision of housing from the state, considering that this step will save a lot of money for the state. He indicated that reconsidering the housing philosophy requires the government’s cooperation with the National Assembly, and it also needs to “prepare” the citizen to accept it, provided that the matter is gradual.