The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company has appointed Majeed Al Abduljabbar as its new chief executive officer with effect from 1 January 2024, following clearance from the Saudi Central Bank. Al Abduljabbar succeeds Fabrice Susini, who led the company since its establishment and who oversaw the SRC's development into a central pillar of Saudi Arabia's secondary mortgage market infrastructure. The appointment was confirmed by the company in a statement, marking the beginning of a new leadership chapter for an institution that carries significant weight in the Kingdom's housing finance agenda.
The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth vehicle, which was assigned responsibility for establishing the company as part of the government's broader effort to develop a deep, liquid, and efficient mortgage market. The SRC operates by purchasing mortgages originated by commercial banks and other licensed lenders, providing those institutions with long-term funding and freeing up their balance sheets to extend additional housing credit — a mechanism designed to increase the overall volume of mortgage lending in the Kingdom.
VISION 2030 HOUSING TARGETS DEFINE MANDATE
Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 programme set an ambitious target of raising home ownership rates among Saudi nationals, recognising that an expansion of the mortgage market was essential to achieving that objective at the required pace and scale. The SRC's role in this effort is structural: by acting as a secondary market institution that refinances mortgages from primary lenders, it provides those lenders with the liquidity and long-term funding they need to extend more housing loans than would otherwise be possible given the constraints of their own balance sheets and funding profiles.
The appointment of Al Abduljabbar to lead this institution reflects the broader prioritisation of Saudisation of senior leadership roles across the Kingdom's financial institutions and government-linked entities, a trend that has accelerated as Vision 2030 policies have reshaped expectations around corporate governance, talent development, and national employment targets in the financial sector. The Saudi Central Bank's formal clearance of the appointment, which is a regulatory requirement for senior executive roles at institutions under its supervision, confirms that Al Abduljabbar meets the fit-and-proper standards the regulator applies to such positions.
MORTGAGE MARKET DEVELOPMENT AS STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Saudi Arabia's mortgage market has undergone rapid expansion over the past decade, driven by government-backed home financing programmes administered through the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, favourable demographic trends from a young and growing population, and an expanding stock of new residential housing supply in major cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. The SRC's ability to provide the banking sector with liquidity by acquiring mortgage assets and issuing its own debt instruments in the capital markets has been a meaningful factor enabling that expansion.
Al Abduljabbar assumes leadership of an institution that has grown its balance sheet, deepened its working relationships with local commercial banks, and built its presence as an issuer in Saudi Arabia's domestic and international debt capital markets since its inception. His appointment signals the board and major shareholder's confidence that continuity of strategic direction is appropriate at this stage of the SRC's development, even as the change in chief executive brings fresh leadership perspective to an organisation that will be expected to play an increasingly active and visible role as the Kingdom pursues its housing ownership targets over the remainder of the Vision 2030 programme period.