The population of Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia and Arabia’s largest city, could hit 10m in less than 20 years if present growth rates continue, the MEED Saudi Mega Transport & Infrastructure Conference was told today.
JLL national director and Saudi Arabia head Jamil Ghaznawi said the rate of growth of the population city is about 3 per cent a year and this is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
Riyadh is now the third largest city in the Arab world after Egypt and Baghdad.
The conference was told yesterday that the population of Jeddah was now 3.8m and it was also growing rapidly.
Ghaznawi also said that the kingdom has an immediate requirement for 1m homes and needs to build about 200,000 annually for the foreseeable future.
Ghaznawi said that new approaches are needed to deliver the housing needed by the kingdom by all demographic groups. He said that there are signs that the average size of Saudi families is falling, but this is being offset by the increasing number of foreign workers living in the kingdom with their families.
Tawuniya is insurance partner for the event. Hyder is gold sponsor and Alstom and SABB are silver sponsors. Autodesk is bronze sponsor. Arcadis hosted the masterclass. Atheeb Intergraph is sponsor of lunch on day one. Bentley is host for breakfast on day two. Acconex; Dr Saud Al-Ammari Law Firm in association with Blakes; Faithful & Gould; Hill International; Pace and Drake & Scull are conference sponsors. Louis Berger is associate sponsor.
The MEED Saudi Mega Transport & Infrastructure Conference is organised with the permission of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and GC Company LLC of Riyadh.