Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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urban growth consumed most of the available energies. Nevertheless, despite these
difficulties, the RAMP project must be credited for being more realistic and more attentive
to local cultural aspects of the city. Meanwhile, subsequent urban growth of Riyadh took
the form of the exploitable grid subdivisions within the original Doxiadis circulation
framework and the extended one by SECT.
C. Housing in the 1970s and 1980s
A study in 1978 was concluded with alarming results on the housing situation in
Riyadh. It contended that
only 2 per cent of all income earners in Riyadh's area are able to buy a new
detached house....This is not merely a problem of an inequitable income
distribution; the average person in Riyadh has become impoverished with
respect to his ability to buy a house, even though his income in Riyal terms,
or his ability to acquire other consumer goods, including apartment has
grown. 50
Due to the sudden influx of expatriates and rural migration, inflation soared and with
it house prices. The construction boom of the 1970s was made possible by the swelling
government treasury, thanks to increased world demand for oil output. During this decade,
the massive allocation in the built environment encouraged local citizens and foreign firms
alike to participate in the booming construction industry. This resulted in an increase in
citizens earnings, accelerating migration, hence exacerbating the demand for more and
better housing. Recall that between 1968 and 1974, the population of Riyadh grew from
300,000 to 667,000. The 1978's study attributed the 122 per cent increase in population to
the rapid increase of household formation, set-up by young people leaving their parents'
home at an earlier age, improved hygienic standards resulting in reduced mortality rates,
and the influx of rural migrants, as well as foreign immigrants.
The private housing market fell short of meeting this sharp increase in demand.
Several factors can be identified with the sluggish functioning of the housing sector.
Firstly, Islamic teachings, observed by the conservative Saudi nationals, prohibit the use of
financing methods based on interest-bearing loans. These are looked upon by the
conservative population as socially gauche. Secondly, artificial restrictions, such as
skyrocketing land prices due to the frenzied speculative real estate market, thwarted the
production of new housing. The cost of land accounted for half the price tag of the total