The Saudi Real Estate Refinancing Company (SRC) said it has signed an agreement with Saudi British Bank to buy residential real estate finance portfolios, through which the company will provide liquidity for the portfolios purchased for the bank.

An affiliate of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the SRC said this is part of the agreements signed by the company with other local banks and specialised mortgage providers, in the kingdom, to purchase real estate finance portfolios.

The deal is a clear demonstration of the company's commitment to inject more liquidity to enable financiers to expand into the residential real estate finance sector and help reduce the gap between long-term assets and short-term liabilities, a fact that shall have a positive impact on the citizens, through the lowering the cost of finance for owning a property, said the statement from SRC.

The rationale behind the company's role is to ensure that there is a secondary mortgage market, in which lenders are provided with more financing and liquidity, enabling growth in the housing finance sector, it added.-TradeArabia News Service