Business & Money | Tuesday 13 February, 2018 7:00 am |

An electronic rental network was launched here on Monday to regulate the Kingdom’s real estate rental market.

A registration fee of SR250 has been fixed for residential rental contracts and SR400 for commercial rental contracts.

The network offers a wide range of electronic services such as documenting contracts, electronic payment, and obliging real estate agents to submit a uniform rental contract on the network so as to be approved as an executive bond. It also shows credit status of tenants.

The electronic rental network was launched in the presence of Minister of Housing Majed Al-Hoqail, Minister of Justice Waleed Al-Samaan, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Sawahah and other senior officials.

Addressing a press conference at the launching ceremony, Al-Huqail said the network is one of the initiatives of his ministry to regulate the real estate sector and the rental market in the Kingdom.

“This network offers a package of services to regulate and simplify the rental procedures for landlords, tenants and real estate brokers,” he said.

Al-Samaani said a unified rental contract will be considered as an executive bond and as such its holder can directly approach the court.

It will significantly help avoid long judicial process.

Al-Sawahah said this new service, which is a giant step in the Kingdom’s digital transformation process, will serve a large section of people and sectors and will be instrumental in safeguarding the rights and interests of all contractual parties.

Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Al-Batti, CEO of National Housing Co., said the benefits include protecting rights of the parties and reducing the number of litigations, contributing to raising gross domestic product (GDP) and boosting investment in real estate sector, which includes more than 2.5 million residential units.