Sakani is a housing program created in 2018 with the aim of improving Saudi families’ access to housing. Sakani helps families to own their first home by providing financing services and multiple package options with a wide range of services related to infrastructure, parking, gardens, schools, markets, and others.
The main objectives of the Sakani platform and mobile app are to enhance the user experience in getting instant housing services, tracking orders online and enabling users to have different options in what concerns financial support, location and design. Sakani also has a critical role in providing opportunities and services to families in more vulnerable situations by integrating with social organizations that can validate the users’ data.
Sakani has been benefiting from partnerships with different organizations and stakeholders to speed up the approval of housing requests, and it has already served 1.4 million Saudi families since the launch of the program until the end of 2022, including 150 thousand families in 2022. Among those, 60 thousand housing units were for families in more vulnerable economic situations through partnerships with the non-profit sector, 155 thousand housing units were provided through partnerships with the private sector, and 665 were for families with subsidized mortgages.

https://sakani.sa/

• Saudi Arabia

• Youth
• Older persons
• Women
• Indigenous and nomadic peoples
• People with disabilities
• The unemployed
• The poor
• Migrants
• Remote and rural communities
• Saudi citizens

Sakani as a platform can be replicated in other countries in some features, such as housing requests and services and financial services and package options. However, based on regulations and housing services in other countries, it may need some customization in integration, user journey and partnerships.
The solution was built in-house in the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing in partnership with the National Housing Company. It has some copyright restrictions in terms of source code and needs agreements and potential adaptations if it is to be replicated in other countries. However, it is possible for any other country to build a similar solution to achieve similar objectives.

Sakani is a sustainable project, and no major future threats to the project's sustainability are expected. The project’s sustainability is based on the fact that the project is built in-house with owned source code in partnership with the National Housing Company, owned by the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing. Therefore, it is not dependent on external support. Sakani also benefits from a wide variety and quality of human resources with a well-defined structure and a clear division of responsibilities. It includes product managers, project managers, business analysts, developers, designers, quality testers, and security, operations, and support teams. The project is also gradually being open-sourced, with some features uploaded to the governmental platform for open-source.

Sakani is aligned with the WSIS C7 E-Business Action line. It promotes e-business and partnerships with the private sector, and enables economic growth and substantial employment opportunities in housing projects, fostering inclusive and sustainable economic growth, with more equal opportunities for all. Also, Sakani housing services support building new homes with resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation by applying new housing solutions like readymade houses, reducing building time and costs for all citizens. This promotes equal opportunities and financial freedom for people in more vulnerable situations, due to the partnerships with the non-profit sector. Its modern housing project contributes to making cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. It provides a new style of housing by providing all services within housing areas like gardens, parks, schools, smart homes and more. Lastly, Sakani fosters the creativity of digital services which can tighten the collaboration between the public and private sectors.