* Talal Al-Sayah from Riyadh
The value of real estate assets of investment funds in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2018 were about 19.61 billion riyals, up 361 per cent from the end of 2017, or about 4.25 billion riyals, which is the highest growth rate in ten years, specifically since 2008.
It does not disclose investments or real estate assets whether they are local or external, but since they are established in Saudi Arabia, a large part of their investments is local.
According to the analysis of the reports' unit in the newspaper "AlEqtisadiah" that was based on data from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the proportion of real estate assets out of the total value of all assets of investment funds were up to the highest ratio since 2008, reaching 17.5 per cent by the end of 2018, compared with 3.9 per cent at the end of 2017 and 2.9 per cent at the end of 2008.
The value of assets of mutual funds by the end of 2018 were about 111.86 billion riyals with registered a growth of 1.5 per cent, equivalent to 1.63 billion riyals, which was worth about 110.23 billion riyals at the end of 2017.
Returning to assets or real estate investments and their performance within ten years, it posted seven-year growth versus a three-year decline.
The years of decline were 2010, 2015 and 2016 with 36.8 per cent, 5.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively.
While in the remaining years, there was a growth of 4.4 per cent to 361.5 per cent, growing in 2009 by 8.5 per cent, in 2011 by 18.1 per cent, and in 2012 by 4.4 per cent.
In 2013 recorded a growth rate of 72.1%, which is the second largest growth in ten years, in 2014 by 13.8 per cent, in 2017 by 32.8 per cent, and 2018 by 361.5 percent, the largest growth rate in ten years.
* Economic Reports Unit
