RIYADH — Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing Majed Al-Hoqail said that revisions to the executive regulations of White Land Tax (WLT) Law, endorsed by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, will spur the Kingdom’s advancement march and supply of land.
He said thanks to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman for the Cabinet’s choice to approve the amendments.
He said in a press statement that the Cabinet choice comes extremely close to the government’s continuous help and keenness on the housing area, and furthermore adds to spurring white landowners to create and expand their plots of land just as to support the land supply, in a way that reflects positively residents and the sector in general.
“A positive impact has been achieved during the past years following the application of WLT in a number of cities, and its role in the growth of the development march and boosting the real estate supply,” he said.
The new amendments to the chief guidelines specify three execution stages. The first phase includes undeveloped plots of land with a space of 10,000 square meters or more, which fall inside the scope specified by the ministry.
The subsequent stage incorporates developed plots of land with a space of 10,000 square meters or more for a single proprietor of 10,000 square meters or more in one housing plan inside the degree indicated by the ministry.
The third stage covers created land with a space of 5,000 square meters or more, and the all-out space of created plots of land for a single owner is 10,000 square meters or more in one city inside the degree determined by the service.
The amendments contained the chances of applying more than one phase of implementation in one city.
Additionally, the ministry would direct and intermittently audit the circumstance in any city to conclude whether to apply taxes to plots of land there or suspend utilization of tax or execute at least one stage to sidestep a specific stage and move to the next phase in a similar city.
It is significant that the WLT program is being executed in its first stage in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Makkah, and the all-out installment orders in the four cities came to around 5,500 for a complete territory surpassing 411 million square meters.
The program has recently reported its expansion in a number of cities, having Madinah, Asir, Jazan, Taif, and Tabuk.
Saudi Arabia chose in 2016 to gain by lacking area in urban areas, which makes up 30% of those spaces. A 2.5 percent tax, based on land value, was given to landowners who had bought plots however left them undeveloped.
The WLT program means to expand the volume of plots accessible to create metropolitan zones, offer private land at sensible costs, and give reasonable rivalry while halting land monopolization.