Kuwait moves on housing: a 15-article mortgage decree-law approved, and 41 companies advance to build 5,000 homes in three cities

What the Cabinet approved

On Tuesday 22 September 2026, at a meeting chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Cabinet approved a draft decree-law on mortgage financing for housing welfare beneficiaries and referred it to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The Minister of State for Municipal Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs, Abdul Latif Al-Mishari, said the draft comprises 15 articles and aims to ensure the sustainable provision of adequate housing for Kuwaiti citizens.

What the 15 articles do

Article 2 covers buying a housing unit from a real estate developer under Law No. 118 of 2023, or building on a residential plot allocated by the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW). Article 3 sets who is eligible. Article 4 regulates subsidised and unsubsidised financing and allows the two to be combined under rules set by the Central Bank of Kuwait. Article 5 caps repayment at 25 years in equal monthly instalments. Article 7 requires notice before default and allows rescheduling. Article 8 requires registration with the Central Bank. Articles 9 to 12 set the role of Kuwait Credit Bank in the agreements and guarantees. Article 13 leaves the interest rate on unsubsidised financing to the Central Bank. Article 14 gives six months for the executive regulations, and Article 15 brings the law into effect once those regulations are published.

The developer programme: 5,000 homes, 41 companies

The developer side rests on Law No. 118 of 2023, amended by Decree-Law No. 89 of 2025, which took effect in early August 2025 and widened the companies PAHW can set up, letting their capital fit each project. Under the first phase of the Real Estate Developer Programme, three packages will deliver 5,000 housing units in Al-Mutlaa, Saad Al-Abdullah and Jaber Al-Ahmad. At the end of August 2026 PAHW named 41 Kuwaiti and international companies, grouped in 22 consortiums, to move on to the next stage of procedures. Eng. Ahmed Al-Ansari, PAHW's Acting Deputy Director General for Investment and Private Sector Projects, said the qualification followed Cabinet directives, and that the authority had studied the three sites and prepared preliminary designs before announcing the qualified firms.

The bigger plan

Government plans aim at about 170,000 housing units over the next decade. The Cabinet has also formed a Government Coordination Committee for Monitoring Implementation of Services Related to Housing Projects, with the Ministries of Finance, Public Works, Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy, and Communications, Kuwait Municipality, the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries and Kuwait Credit Bank, to clear obstacles and line up services in the existing and planned residential cities. In June the minister told the Kuwait Forum for State Development Projects that housing remains a firm national priority; more than 100,000 applications are registered with PAHW.

What Al Mithaq adds

We follow every step of this file as it is published, because it sets the pace of demand for finished homes and land across Kuwait. If you are not waiting for a government home, or want land on the water now, our Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City page takes the phase, size and budget you want and our Khiran team calls back the same working day with the plots that are actually available.

Sources

• Kuwait Times (KUNA): Kuwait housing reforms target shorter waits, private developers, 3 October 2026
• Arab Times: Kuwait Cabinet clears fresh financing path for housing, 22 September 2026
• Kuwait Times: Housing remains top national priority, Al-Meshari tells development forum, 14 June 2026
• Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW)