Kuwait moves ahead with housing plans

25 November 2013

Government to fund $24.7bn-worth of housing schemes and will tender almost 120,000 units as public-private partnerships

Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing and Welfare (PAHW) is moving ahead with several major housing projects to meet the increasing demand for new homes, MEED’s Kuwait Projects 2013 conference has been told.

The PAHW is currently overseeing or planning five publicly funded housing projects for a proposed 61,000 homes, as well as planning four major public-private partnership (PPP) housing schemes, which will provide a total of almost 120,000 residential units, Hisham Sorour, managing partner of the Baker Tilly Kuwait, told the MEED event. Baker Tilly Kuwait is providing advisory services for the PAHW on its low-cost housing programme.

For the government-funded schemes, the PAHW plans to spend KD7bn ($24.7bn) on building new homes for local people. The Abu Huliya development, consisting of 171 units, and the Al-Subhiya scheme, comprising 134 units, are both under construction and the larger Wafra housing scheme, with 2,666 homes, is in the tendering phase. The proposed 6,000-unit West Abdullah Mubarak development is currently in the planning and design stage.

The PAHW and the Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB), Kuwait’s PPP body, are also planning to develop four major housing projects in partnership with the private sector, which will involve building close to 120,000 residential units for local people.

The PAHW and PTB are currently tendering for the advisory services contract for the first project, a low-cost housing development that will comprise 9,696 units, and hopes for the transaction adviser to be appointed by the fourth quarter of 2014.

For the 35,130-unit Al-Khiran housing PPP project, the government is currently preparing tender documents for the advisory services contract and hopes to appoint an adviser by the first quarter of 2015. The PAHW and PTB are also preparing tender documents for the Metlaa and Subiya PPP housing projects, which will provide 21,000 and 52,625 homes respectively.

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