LONDON: The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co. (SRC) said on Saturday it had agreed to buy SR750 million ($200 million) worth of mortgages from local banks and mortgage financing companies.
The agreements, signed during last week’s Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh, included deals with Banque Saudi Fransi and Saudi British Bank (SABB), SRC said in statements.
The company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), aims to inject liquidity into the Saudi housing finance market by buying out mortgages.
“This announcement validates SRC’s purpose within a vibrant housing market, but for it to reach full potential we must ensure that there is improved supply of new homes whilst also making these homes affordable and accessible to more Saudi citizens,” SRC’s CEO Fabrice Susini said of the Banque Saudi Fransi deal.
“This agreement is a visible demonstration of how SRC makes further liquidity being available for the Saudi housing market which will ultimately make every Saudi citizen’s dream of owning a home a reality. That said, the agreement will further increase Banque Saudi Fransi’s ability to offer more (accessible) home buying solutions.”
David Dew, managing director of SABB, said: “This agreement will play a role in the development of the housing sector and the provision of sustainable solutions that will enable home ownership with ease. Housing finance is a central objective of Vision 2030, and with this initiative, SABB will be playing a central role on the development of the sector.”
The announcement comes shortly after SRC successfully completed sukuk, or Islamic bond, issuances of SR750 million, making it the first non-sovereign issuer in Saudi Arabia in 2019.
SRC, which was formed in 2017, aims to refinance 20 percent of Saudi Arabia’s mortgage market, which is forecast to grow to SR500 billion by 2020 and SR800 billion within the next decade.
Susini told Reuters last week that the company aims to issue up to $1.07 billion of long-term sukuk this year, as it prepares to purchase more home loan portfolios.
Saudi real estate firm to buy mortgages worth $200m
Saudi real estate firm to buy mortgages worth $200m
- The agreements included deals with Banque Saudi Fransi and Saudi British Bank (SABB)
- The company aims to inject liquidity into the Saudi housing finance market by buying out mortgages
Multilateralism strained, but global cooperation adapting: WEF report
DUBAI: Overall levels of international cooperation have held steady in recent years, with smaller and more innovative partnerships emerging, often at regional and cross-regional levels, according to a World Economic Forum report.
The third edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Thursday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
“The takeaway of the Global Cooperation Barometer is that while multilateralism is under real strain, cooperation is not ending, it is adapting,” Ariel Kastner, head of geopolitical agenda and communications at WEF, told Arab News.
Developed alongside McKinsey & Company, the report uses 41 metrics to track global cooperation in five areas: Trade and capital; innovation and technology; climate and natural capital; health and wellness; and peace and security.
The pace of cooperation differs across sectors, with peace and security seeing the largest decline. Cooperation weakened across every tracked metric as conflicts intensified, military spending rose and multilateral mechanisms struggled to contain crises.
By contrast, climate and nature, alongside innovation and technology, recorded the strongest increases.
Rising finance flows and global supply chains supported record deployment of clean technologies, even as progress remained insufficient to meet global targets.
Despite tighter controls, cross-border data flows, IT services and digital connectivity continued to expand, underscoring the resilience of technology cooperation amid increasing restrictions.
The report found that collaboration in critical technologies is increasingly being channeled through smaller, aligned groupings rather than broad multilateral frameworks.
This reflects a broader shift, Kastner said, highlighting the trend toward “pragmatic forms of collaboration — at the regional level or among smaller groups of countries — that advance both shared priorities and national interests.”
“In the Gulf, for example, partnerships and investments with Asia, Europe and Africa in areas such as energy, technology and infrastructure, illustrate how focused collaboration can deliver results despite broader, global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, health and wellness and trade and capital remained flat.
Health outcomes have so far held up following the pandemic, but sharp declines in development assistance are placing growing strain on lower- and middle-income countries.
In trade, cooperation remained above pre-pandemic levels, with goods volumes continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than the global economy, while services and selected capital flows showed stronger momentum.
The report also highlights the growing role of smaller, trade-dependent economies in sustaining global cooperation through initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, launched in September 2025 by the UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
Looking ahead, maintaining open channels of communication will be critical, Kastner said.
“Crucially, the building block of cooperation in today’s more uncertain era is dialogue — parties can only identify areas of common ground by speaking with one another.”
