Amna bint Ahmed Al Romaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, affirmed the immediate implementation of the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to allocate an additional budget for financing solutions and alternative options for those who have applied for housing units in 2004 and prior.
She confirmed that the ministry is currently working on preparing a schedule for implementing the plan to meet requests as soon as possible, to provide suitable housing services for citizens in line with the Government Plan 2023-2026.
The minister expressed her appreciation to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for supporting social housing.
She said that the newly developed housing initiatives to provide services to citizens are part of development plans for the housing sector targeting innovative solutions and big investments, in partnership with the private sector.
Al Romaihi pointed out that the plan comes in response to the proposals of members of the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives to meet the housing requests of citizens with old housing requests.
She praised the cooperation between the legislative and executive branches to serve citizens, especially in providing social housing services for people with limited income. She added that these proposals are also compatible with citizens’ proposals that are received by the ministry through various communication channels.
The minister said that the plan includes flexible and diversified options to speed up the allocation of services for the limited income segment. She explained that the first option included allocating a housing unit, subsidised by a financing of BD 40,000 through ‘Tasheel’ programme, while continuing the housing allowance for two years from the due date.
The second option is to provide a residential apartment for the beneficiaries with a financial grant of BD 3,000 and a two-year exemption from maintenance fees for shared areas though the beneficiaries union.
The third option is to grant beneficiaries the maximum financing provided through Tasheel, which is BD 70,000, in addition to a BD 10,000 grant.
The first and second options will be available to citizens with monthly income not exceeding BD 900, while the third option is for those whose monthly income ranges from BD 900-1500, the minister explained.
The minister said that the newly released plan for old housing applicants came in parallel with the positive results of Tasheel and Mazaya financing programmes, which succeeded in immediately processing thousands of housing applications. She added that there has been a great interest from citizens in changing their applications to financing options.
Source: Bahrain News Agency