The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia) announced the signing of agreements for three major housing programmes worth a combined total of SR16.5bn ($4.4bn) during the final day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh on 25 October.

For the largest project, the Ministry of Housing and National Housing Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with PowerChina International Group for the development of 17,000 housing units over the next six years under the Al-Asfar project.

An MoU was also signed between the local Alameriah and China’s Sany for the Telal Al-ghoroob project. The third MoU outlined a cooperation agreement with US-based Katerra for the Eskan housing programme.

The agreements are part of Riyadh’s plans to oversee the development of more than one million homes in the next five years to meet the growing demand for homes in the kingdom. The government has allocated a budget of $15bn to meet the target.