Housing

[Only 53.2% of Saudis living in Riyadh own their own home, according to census data © Jeremy Suyker/Bloomberg]

Interested to read this morning that Saudi Arabia has trouble with housing, just like large chunks of the western world, with the system failing to meet the popular demand for housing. Perhaps the royal family is salting away too large a proportion of all the oil money pouring in. Perhaps the Saudis have got to learn to love to live in flats, if they want to live in big towns, like most of the rest of us.

I am not clear whether all the units occupying the upper left diagonal in the snap above are units for families, extended families or small blocks of flats.

Perhaps evidence of a tendency, evidenced in most complex societies, for stratification or pyramidisation. For the population to rapidly sort itself into a pyramid of wealth and power, with a few at the top and a lot at the bottom - this however hard the founding fathers try to set things up in a more modest and egalitarian way. Just think of the conspicuous wealth and greed at the top of our heap.

I am reminded that about half the 40m people who live in Saudi Arabia are not citizens. An arrangement which will no doubt cause them trouble in the years to come.

I am also reminded that sociologists used to say that in societies of old, the rulers got a third, the priests got a third and the rest got the rest. With Ancient Egypt being a favourite example. Which leads me to wonder what proportion the priests in Saudi Arabia manage.

References

Reference 1: Riyadh’s property boom puts home ownership beyond reach of many Saudis: Property price surge in the capital has rendered house and apartment prices unaffordable for average citizen - Ahmed Al Omran, Financial Time - 2025.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia.

Reference 3: http://jeremysuyker.com/. Lots of arty snaps to be found here.