Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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Petitioners' requests were examined in light of certain criteria, such as the availability of
land, the city in which it lay, the status of the petitioner, and his or her need. Citizens were
also allowed to request a royal fief, that is minhah, by applying for land without
necessarily having LIG status.
The process of privatization of the land can be outlined as follows. The municipality
earmarks certain lots for distribution to the public either free of charge or at nominal prices.
Three prices were identified for the country's municipal and rural land. 18 Procedures were
also set for transferring land from public to private ownership. The three prices per square
meter for Arar's municipal land were listed, SR10.00 for land class A, SR6.00 for class B,
and SR3.00 for class C; classification was based on land location (one U.S dollar was the
equivalent of SR 3.5 in 1978). A second form of transfer of public land to citizens was
that of helping low income groups obtain land for their own residences. In this case, the
government provided lots of 400 square meters to citizens whom authorities deemed as
underprivileged, or of "limited-income." In the later case, residents were entitled only to
one lot which could be locked in restrictive conditions concerning its sale and rents. 19 The
third method of transfer of land to private ownership was that of minah — Royal gifts in the
form of land free of charge to qualified applicants. In the case of minhah, the King
endowed grants, such as land, to citizens according to certain qualifications, including
actual need, social status, and availability of land for distribution. Depending on the
availability of land, an applicant could be granted land at a central location in an important
city, or endowed a larger area at any location owned by the state. Recipients of
government land would sell at market prices upon the legal transfer of ownership.
The practice of allotting land free to citizens dramatically increased during the late
1970s and 1980s, partially due to the expedition of the urbanization process but especially
in response to the inauguration of the Real Estate Development Fund's (REDF) generous
housing loans. The REDFs requirements stipulated the legal possession of residential land
in a municipally-sanctioned land subdivision. To qualify for a REDFs interest-free loan,
residents were required to show proof of land ownership in a municipally sanctioned
residential zone.
The government also offered public land at nominal rents in connection with its
industrial promotion programs. The provision of land for industrial uses, that is for the
development of auxiliary light industrial services (autoshops, simple metal and wood