The UAE plans to rapidly kick-start the building of homes under a new government initiative aimed at providing low-cost housing for Emirati families, according to the UAE’s Minister of Public Works Abdulla Mohamed al-Nuaimi. 

Speaking at Cityscape Global in Dubai on 8 October, Al-Nuaimi, also the chairman of the Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme, said the scheme recently received a $572m grant from the government, which will assist 5,000 Emirati families in building their own homes. 

Al-Nuaimi said he plans to meet several banks and developers at Cityscape to discuss new low-cost schemes. “What we are talking about is tremendous. It is not thousands of homes, but tens of thousands of homes,” he said. 

The government so far has not done enough to provide low-cost housing, but it is now ready to accept new ideas and solutions to solve the problem, he said. On average, the number of new families that need affordable homes in the UAE rises by nearly 5,000 each year, he added.

“We need to find more solutions to the low-cost housing problem and show that we can put forward these schemes for the benefit of nationals,” he said.