THE SMOGGY SUN-DRENCHED view is from the top floor of the castle-like headquarters of Sabic, the biggest company listed on the Saudi Arabian stock market. Constrained on all sides by nothing but desert plateau, Riyadh stretches out on the rocky ground for as far as the eye can see. It is like a vast, bloated body digesting a rich, oily lunch: its veins freeways with SUV blood cells.
Housing finance companies are preparing to feast on Riyadh, eventually being supported, it is hoped, by a much stronger securitization market.
Flush with petrodollars from the commodities super-cycle, Saudi Arabia is booming. Construction, propped up by government-funded infrastructure projects, is at the forefront of this. At $27 billion, investment in real estate in 2007 was more than double the amount of 2006. But many Saudi Arabians are finding it difficult to find somewhere to live.
Almost 60% of Saudi Arabia’s population of...
