Apr. EN 2019

16 Mazaya Monthly Real Estate Report - Week 5 - April 2019 This comes at a time when population growth is the main driver of demand for low-cost housing units, especially for young people interested in finding affordable housing commensurate with their income. Current data indicate that the GCC region's population will reach 53 million by 2020, a fact which will raise demand for low-cost housing units. The affected countries seek to provide adequate and affordable housing solutions, primarily aimed at addressing the consequences of population growth as well as plans to reduce the gap between supply and demand for this category of real estate products. The pace and nature of the current pressures faced by the Middle East region and the entire world have become the main determinant of the introduction of low & middle-income projects, said the report, adding that such a situation risks posing new challenges amid continuing population growth and its concomitant increased levels of poverty and unemployment. Al Mazaya pointed out that the identification of target segments has become growingly difficult with the continuing decline in prices of all types of residential units, except for luxury ones. Low prices, according to the report, have contributed to reducing demand for low-cost housing units and enabled low-to-mid income segments to get units of higher quality at lower prices. It is worth mentioning here that the launch and completion of projects targeting low-income segments are still bound to government trends and plans. The region's markets are making more achievements on this level every day, according to the report. The housing policy in the UAE, for example, aims to provide incentives to low-income citizens in order to meet their citizens’ housing needs. The government also seeks to address other segments of end- users in order to reduce the gap between various segments of the UAE society.