Decline in Interest Rates Expands Opportunities for Real Estate Refinancing in Saudi Arabia

Opportunities have expanded for real estate refinancing in Saudi Arabia as interest rates are dropping due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (SPA)

Riyadh: Mohammed al-Hamidi

12:48-8 November 2020 AD ـ 23 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1442 AH

Riyadh: Mohammed al-Hamidi

12:48-8 November 2020 AD ـ 23 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1442 AH

Decline in Interest Rates Expands Opportunities for Real Estate Refinancing in Saudi Arabia

Opportunities have expanded for real estate refinancing in Saudi Arabia as interest rates are dropping due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (SPA)

Opportunities have expanded for real estate refinancing in Saudi Arabia as interest rates are declining due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Specialists have called for taking advantage of the variety of financing solutions available, especially long-term mortgage loans, to increase Saudi home ownership.

The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company - a state-run company that provides real estate financing services - estimated the activity to grow from 290 billion riyals to 500 billion riyals (USD 133.3 billion) this year, and to reach 800 billion riyals (USD 213.3 billion) over the next ten years.

According to Fabrice Susini, CEO of the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company, the Saudi government has introduced some prudent support packages with the aim of stimulating the economy, but added that the losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic would not be fully compensated.

Amid the current circumstances, consumers in Saudi Arabia must start searching for means that contribute to alleviating their financial burdens, he underlined.

“In every crisis, there is an opportunity,” Susini said, noting that the present opportunity was the low interest rates.

He stressed in this regard that the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company had the main objective to “help citizens climb the housing ladder.”

Current efforts allow homeowners to compensate for the financial shocks that impacted them during the Covid-19 crisis, and present them with an opportunity to plan for their future, he added.

These developments come amid declining profit rates on housing finance by about 100 basis points over the past two years, while the Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company reduced mortgage finance rates three times in the past year, in order to encourage home ownership.

Susini said he believes that the current measures would contribute to increasing the rate of home acquisition in the Kingdom, noting that the government has played an efficient role in providing a suitable environment for its citizens so that home ownership becomes a basic right, not a privilege.

Alibaba Proposes Hong Kong Share Placement Worth $10 Billion

FILE PHOTO: People visit an Alibaba booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo/File Photo

Asharq Al Awsat

06:50-23 August 2026 AD ـ 10 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

06:50-23 August 2026 AD ـ 10 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Alibaba Proposes Hong Kong Share Placement Worth $10 Billion

FILE PHOTO: People visit an Alibaba booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo/File Photo

China's Alibaba announced on Sunday a proposed placement of new shares in Hong Kong.

The aggregate placement consideration is HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion), the company added, according to Reuters.

Alibaba said the ⁠deal would mark ⁠the largest-ever primary follow-on offering by a Hong Kong-listed company and the biggest Regulation S ⁠equity offering on record, while ranking as the world's third-largest primary follow-on share sale this year after Alphabet and Intel.

The company said it intends to use 100% of the net ⁠proceeds from ⁠the placement to invest in its full stack AI capabilities, including expanding and enhancing its AI infrastructure.

Business

South Korea Sends 1st Container Ship Through Arctic Route

The container ship 'Panstar Acoro,' bound for Europe via the Arctic, docks at Busan port in South Korea on August 22, 2026 (Yonhap News Agency via Reuters)

Asharq Al Awsat

05:38-23 August 2026 AD ـ 10 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

05:38-23 August 2026 AD ـ 10 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

South Korea Sends 1st Container Ship Through Arctic Route

The container ship 'Panstar Acoro,' bound for Europe via the Arctic, docks at Busan port in South Korea on August 22, 2026 (Yonhap News Agency via Reuters)

South Korea sent its first trial container ship through the Arctic on Saturday, as the Middle East war rattles global shipping, while environmental groups warned the route could accelerate polar ice melt.

The Middle East conflict, sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, has roiled global shipping, sending governments and shipping firms scrambling to seek alternative routes.

Sailing from Busan New Port, the "PanStar Acro" container ship is to sail to Europe via the Arctic, testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice can be commercially viable.

"We would like to inform you that the vessel for the Arctic route trial voyage departed" at 9:30 pm (1230 GMT), Seoul's oceans ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.

The ship is headed for Felixstowe in Britain, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdansk in Poland before returning, with the voyage expected to take about 45 days, according to the ministry.

The voyage follows that of the Chinese container ship "Dubai Tower", which left the eastern port city of Ningbo for Europe this month, heading north through the Bering Strait before turning west along Russia's Arctic coast.

The usual maritime route between Asia and Europe runs through the Suez Canal, but travelling through the Arctic can cut the journey by around 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) and about 10 days, according to the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

South Korea's Vice Oceans Minister Nam Jae-hon said the Arctic route was "bound to become an alternative" to Middle Eastern shipping lanes -- as geopolitical risks and technological advances make it increasingly competitive.

Marc Lanteigne, a political science professor at the Arctic University of Norway, said the voyage -- coming soon after China's "Dubai Tower" began its own Arctic journey -- showed the Northern Sea Route (NSR) was becoming normalized as a "secondary maritime transit corridor".

A successful voyage would demonstrate South Korea's interest in "developing alternative shipping sea lanes", he told AFP, with concerns that it could fall behind as Chinese firms expand regular services through the increasingly viable Arctic route.

Some experts warn South Korean ships using the Arctic route could risk breaching Western sanctions on Russia -- currently a key security ally of North Korea -- as they would receive Russian navigation and weather services involving payments, albeit small ones.

South Korea's foreign ministry declined to comment when asked by AFP about the concerns involving Russia.

The oceans ministry said this week that "consultations with key relevant countries and agencies" have been completed to "implement administrative procedures necessary" for the voyage.

Vladimir Tikhonov, Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, said "strictly speaking, US and EU sanctions are not international law, unlike UN sanctions".

"And with continued uncertainty in the Middle East... South Korea may have few alternatives if the Arctic route proves economically viable," he told AFP.

Lanteigne said China's Northern Sea Route ambitions were more politically driven than South Korea's, with Beijing viewing the polar regions as "strategic new frontiers", raising Western security concerns.

Meanwhile, environmental groups warned growing traffic along the shorter NSR could accelerate Arctic sea ice loss already driven by global warming.

Major carriers including CMA CGM, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd have pledged to avoid Arctic shipping routes.

The NSR is believed to be accessible only during the time of year when the ice is melted enough to allow transits without icebreakers.

"The Northern Sea Route has become increasingly viable as the Arctic warms about four times faster than the global average, leading to a sharp decline in sea ice," South Korean environmental group Paran Ocean Citizen Science Center said in a statement last year.

"But making the route commercially viable would require further warming, putting the policy at odds with efforts to combat climate change."

Business

Canada to Impose Retaliatory Across a Raft of US Sectors, Carney Says

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks about Canada's response to new US tariffs during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press via AP)

17:09-22 August 2026 AD ـ 09 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Canada to Impose Retaliatory Across a Raft of US Sectors, Carney Says

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks about Canada's response to new US tariffs during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday that starting September 8 Canada would impose tariffs on imports from the United States across a raft of sectors in retaliation for President Donald Trump's new 50% tariffs that came into effect from midnight.

After days of intense negotiations, the two countries failed to reach a ‌trade deal late ‌Friday, worsening an already ‌delicate relationship ⁠between the two ⁠long-term trade partners and allies and complicating the future of a highly successful continental free trade pact called the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.

Trump's new tariffs hit a slew of sectors including furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing ⁠rods, hockey equipment and cover some $20 billion ‌of Canadian exports south ‌of the border.

These duties do not ‌give exemption to Canadian products under the USMCA, ‌which have shielded most of Canadian exports to the USin the last 18 months.

"Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar ‌in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses," Carney said at ⁠a ⁠news conference.

These retaliatory tariffs will hit sectors such as steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics and will also include products currently subject to the unjustified Section 232 and 338 tariffs, Carney said in a spirited speech from the Parliament building in Ottawa.

"We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked," Carney said.

Decline in Interest Rates Expands Opportunities for Real Estate Refinancing in Saudi Arabia

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