This issue is one of the issues that I never understood. I would say 90% of my friends who are married never applied for a free land from the Public Authority for Housing Welfare. Most of them complain of not having their own home and about constantly renting and moving from one place to the other. When I tell them to apply to get a free land. They either reject because they want better locations or they keep delaying for no reason. The problem is that most of them have been waiting for more than 10 years and still didn’t apply because of this hope of getting a land very close to Kuwait City. The main issue is that the free interest loan of 70,000 KD is being inflated big time and it is being inflated more on yearly basis. The value of this 70,000 10 years ago is much more than what it is today. By the time they receive the lands by 2030-2040. The 70,000 KD will be the cost to build 2 small rooms only. The other issue is that lands became smaller where the size used to be 600 meters, and now it is 400 meters. I believe it will continue shrinking over time, so the best thing to do. Is just to apply and secure something rather than constantly waiting for something that most probably won’t happen. It is puzzling when I see most of my friends living at their parents home with other siblings who are married as well and they complain about the house being congested and they still never apply for a free land. My recommendation is to get any land ASAP. Securing something even if it is far for the time being is better than not securing anything at all.
Woah , as an exapt I didnt know that this was how Kuwaitis get land . So citizens just wait for thier turn ? That’s ridiculous. What if you are a doctor or an engineer with money .. can you buy land then ?
I guess I never really thought about it, my family has been in Kuwait since the 1970’s most of my relatives have multiple homes all over our country they usually live in one and give the rest of for rent so housing never even crossed my mind . My parents have 12 residential rental properties and a few commercial ones. But whenever I go back home I just go to the main house. And I always just assumed that you bought houses in Kuwait the same way.
Now the hate that Kuwaits feel towards expats makes sense. We come here earn money, buy land, build houses and after which we have equal land rights as any other citizen / entity in our democratic country while Kuwaitis have to wait thier turn and even then after all that if the government decides it wants that land back there is nothing you can do about it…. it’s sad.
Actually it is much more complex than that. Most other countries, people can afford buying homes. In Kuwait it isn’t the case. In the past to buy a land it was an average saving of 2 years that gets you a land. Now it is an average saving of 30 years to buy the land, not considering construction