Housing Finance Exhibition 2024 opens
The Housing Finance Exhibition 2024 opened in Bahrain.
Organised by the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry, the third edition of the expo features four mega real estate companies, 24 real estate brokerage companies, and eight commercial banks, among others.
The exhibition was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, under the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister at the City Centre Bahrain.
The exhibition, which runs until February 17, represents a pivotal step in the government’s ambitious 2023–2026 plan to diversify housing solutions for its citizens. This initiative seeks to integrate and optimize the resources, capabilities, and competencies of both the public and private sectors, with a specific focus on affordable social housing.
Shaikh Khalid also launched the upgraded Bayti Real Estate platform (bayti.bh) which provides real estate and financing consultations to citizens wishing to benefit from financial services. The launch underscores a commitment to providing comprehensive real estate and financing consultations, empowering citizens to make informed decisions tailored to their housing needs and financial circumstances.
Shaikh Khalid, at the opening, affirmed the positive outcomes of the housing programmes launched in partnership with the private sector, confirming the success of the kingdom’s approach to providing sustainable housing services, in line with the visions of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the aspirations of the government, led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to ensure decent housing for low-income citizens.
He indicated that based on its 2023–2026 plan, the government is doing its utmost to diversify the housing solutions provided to citizens in a way that contributes to reducing waiting periods by integrating and optimally using the resources, capabilities, and competencies of the public and private sectors, especially in the field of affordable social housing.
He pointed out that the provision of thousands of financing services over the past two years proves the usefulness of the Housing Financing Programme, which is an innovative housing solution. He also highlighted the success in implementing eight housing projects in 2023 and 2024 under the Government Land Development Programme, in line with the directives of HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.
He added that the remarkable acceleration in providing thousands of housing services to citizens in partnership with the private sector over the past period has reflected positively on the national economy, especially regarding the real estate activities sector, business services, and the construction sector, which are key engines of the non-oil GDP.
On Bayti, Shaikh Khalid praised the new version’s provision of features that facilitate the citizens’ choice of housing appropriate to their living needs and financial solvency.
Housing and Urban Planning Minister Amna Al Rumaihi, who expressed thanks to Shaikh Khalid, said that the current edition of the Housing Finance Exhibition had attracted more participants, which, she said, will contribute to providing more social housing opportunities for the citizens.
“The remarkable surge in the number of participants in the Housing Finance Exhibition is the outcome of the positive results of the Housing Financing Programme and the increase in the volume of real estate transactions by private sector companies,” she said.
“The Housing and Urban Planning Ministry will expand its partnership programmes with the private sector in the coming period through the Government Land Development Programme to provide more units that suit the financing received by the citizens.”
She added that the upgraded version of the Bayti Real Estate platform will provide more options for citizens to benefit from housing services, noting that more interactive features will be added to the platform in order to enable its users to complete their transactions electronically, as part of the ministry’s digitalisation plan.
The minister called on citizens wishing to benefit from financing options to visit the platform and be informed about the financing and real estate products available through it.