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Riyadh Urban Observatory: 45% of Riyadh Houses are Rented

Wednesday 07 May 2014
​​Participants in the Riyadh Urban Observatory's workshop for the city of Riyadh, which was organized by the RDCCI and Riyadh Development Authority, stressed the observatory’s role’s importance in monitoring the progress of urban development projects in Riyadh and providing information that outlines development goals according to the shared vision of members of different economic sectors. They also stressed the observatory's contributions in addressing problems and challenges posed by urban development. Eng Abdul Rahman Al Sultan, Executive Director of the urban observatory, clarified that urban indicators are monitored via data collection and analysis, which then provides a summary of the current state of different development sectors in the city. This also helps assess the sectors' performance and predict their future conditions. He added that the urban observatory's program is ongoing, as it established during its first session a number of basic and specialized indicators for Riyadh. He also added that the observatory's importance lies in providing information about the direction of development to the country's relevant authorities, and in making the necessary decisions if urban problems emerge in the city. Eng Saad Al-Mojal, member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries' Board of Directors, interjected to praise the Riyadh Development Authority's role in implementing and defining a number of development projects in the city, as well as the authority's accomplishments in this matter. He said, "There is always a lack of project implementation. Similarly, there are some districts that need water and sanitation services." For his part, the Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dr. Mohammad Al-Kathiri emphasized that Riyadh's development in various sectors called for the establishment of the Urban Observatory to monitor activities in different development sectors. He added that the importance of the indicators provided by the observatory lies in their ability to measure the performance of various projects. He also said that these indicators give precise and comprehensive information about the direction of development programs. During the meeting, Eng Mohamed Al-Ahmari presented a comparison of Riyadh's urban indicators with those of several other capitals. He said that by the year 1450 AH, the population of Riyadh is expected to reach 8.3 million. Mr. Al-Ahmari also said that the relative distribution of land use is as follows: 18.8% residential, 11.2% agricultural, 37.1% roads, 1.8% industrial, and 2% commercial. As for the city's social and economic development indicators, he said that there are 2.2 physicians for every 1000 resident and 22.1 hospital beds for every ten thousand residents. He added that Riyadh is home to 27.93% of all new businesses in the kingdom. Likewise, the number of patents registered in Riyadh reached 253. As for transportation indicators, Al-Ahmari explained that 92.8% of Riyadh residents use private vehicles for business trips. He expects this number to fall to 74.24% around the year 1445 AH, when King Abdulaziz's public transportation project will have been underway for five years. The presentation included information about infrastructure indicators, which suggest the average per-capita rate of domestic water consumption is 319 liters per person per day, and that 97% of households reside in houses served by the drinking water network and 51% live in houses connected to the sewage network. He also classified the types of houses used by families, explaining that 44.4% live in apartments, 39.5% in villas, and 7.7% in public housing. As for house ownership, 48.1% of houses are owned and 44.8% are rented. He added that houses prices are increasing 3.85% faster than salaries, and that the annual growth rate for new house construction is 1.6% greater than the annual growth rate for households.