Negotiations between Bahrain’s Housing Ministry (MOH) and a Chinese contractor are under way for the contract to build and finance 5,000 housing units in East Sitra as part of Bahrain’s social housing programme.

“The contract is still under negotiation,” Bahrain Housing Minister Basim bin Yacob al-Hamer tells MEED.

The name of the potential contractor has not been disclosed.

The ministry aims to build 40,000 housing units by 2022.

Of these,5,000 units have been delivered and occupied, another 8,885 are due to be delivered by end 2018, 4,000 are under construction and 7,000 are in the tendering stage, inclusive of the East  Sitra contract, which is currently being negotiated.

“We have a very tight schedule to deliver [8,885 housing units] by end of 2018,” says Al-Hamer, who cites there could be a minor slippage in terms of the delivery.

Under the current plan, the ministry is expected to deliver 15,000 more housing units between 2019 and 2022.

MEED understands the Housing Ministry has a waiting list of 60,000 applicants.

Bahrain's social housing programme allows eligible applicants to  purchase a housing unit of their choice, through mortgage finance obtained from conventional or Islamic participating financial institutions.

The government subsidises the mortgage installments where the beneficiary contributes 25 percent of their monthly income and the government contributes the difference between the total monthly installment and beneficiary’s contribution over 25 years.