Saudi's SRC signs $533m refinance deal with social insurance agency

DUBAI: The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC), the Saudi equivalent of US mortgage finance business Fannie Mae, said on Saturday it had reached a refinancing deal with the country's largest social insurance agency worth 2 billion riyals ($533.35 million).

Under the deal, the portfolio of a housing programme backed by the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI), Masakin, will be refinanced. Masakin provides fixed-rate murabaha home financing for state and private sector workers as well as pensioners. Masakin is managed by home financing company Dar Al Tamleek.

"The partnership with GOSI further accelerates our purpose of achieving greater home ownership in the Kingdom," SRC's Chief Executive Fabrice Susini said in a statement.

"Our work with organisations such as GOSI makes home financing even more accessible and affordable to citizens whilst providing additional dynamism to the Kingdom's robust home financing."

SRC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), last year bought a mortgage portfolio worth more than 3 billion riyals from the Saudi Public Pension Agency.

As part of the Vision 2030 reform programme promoted by Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom aims to increase home ownership to 70% by 2030. Susini told Reuters in March that roughly 62% of Saudis now own homes, exceeding the government's target for 60% by 2020. ($1 = 3.7499 riyals).