Minister Speech

The social housing sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain enjoys unlimited care from the wise leadership and the government since the start of the housing journey in the Kingdom at the start of the early 60s of the past century, and this care culminated in many housing gains achieved in the comprehensive development process witnessed by the country, by addressing thousands of housing requests for Bahraini families, through the various paths that have been made available over nearly 60 years of bestowment and achievement.

Perhaps one of the most prominent gains achieved in this journey is the implementation of housing town projects, which covered 8 towns to date, starting with Isa Town, Hamad Town, and Madinat Zayed in the past millennium, to the ongoing projects in Madinat Salman, Khalifa Town, East Hidd Town, East Sitra Town, and Ramli District, which the Ministry continues to build with housing projects and community services.

The royal directives have constantly been present throughout this journey, in a clear embodiment of the priority and attention given to the goal of providing adequate housing for low-income citizens by the wise leadership and the government, and the royal directive of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to provide 40,000 housing units will remain a turning point in the path of delivering housing services to citizens, in terms of the number of housing units provided to citizens; a success that the government has been able to achieve, headed by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, may God preserve them, in March 2022, through the allocation of land, budgets, and technical support necessary to implement projects in towns and residential complexes, which included various governorates and regions of the Kingdom.

Achievements in housing were not halted at this point but rather continued as a new vision was developed to provide housing services to citizens, based on the principles of immediacy and sustainability in providing adequate, marked, and suitable housing for citizens. The government is guided in implementing this vision, by the royal directive of His Majesty the King, which stipulates "the need to continue development plans for the housing sector with its innovative solutions and huge investments, in partnership with the private sector, to secure adequate and suitable housing for citizens."

To implement this royal directive, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning is working to provide immediate and innovative solutions in partnership with the private sector, through the housing financing programme that was launched in August 2022, including “Tas'heel" financing, which comprises 3 types of financing, in addition to “Mazaya" financing, of which "Mazaya New Category" financing is branched from, in addition to the government land development rights programme (GLDP), which is witnessing expansion in the current phase by working on the implementation of 8 new projects after the success of the programme’s first project, i.e., the "Suhail" project, in implementation of the directives of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The government aspires that these programmes will contribute to achieving the sustainability of providing housing services to low-income citizens and reducing waiting lists through immediate access to the housing service without waiting.

Ms. Amna bint Ahmed Alrumaihi

The Minister of Housing And Urban Planning