Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) said on the 25th that it will resume the Kuwait "Abdullah new town pilot dwelling complex investment project" and push the project in earnest. It comes nine years after it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the pilot complex investment project in 2016.
The Kuwait government is creating the "Abdullah new town," investing about 23.6 trillion won in project costs to supply 43,000 dwellings on a 64.42 million-square-meter site located 30 kilometers west of the capital, Kuwait City. The new town is three times the size of Bundang new town.
After winning the construction project management (PM) service for the Abdullah new town development in 2023, LH is pushing to build a pilot complex covering 490,000 square meters with 550 households within the new town. The pilot complex investment project stalled after the 2016 MOU between LH and the Public Authority for Housing Welfare of Kuwait due to the spread of COVID-19 and a lack of local legal and institutional foundations, but it was resumed in Nov. last year.
Since the project resumed, LH has held discussions with the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) of Kuwait to improve local legal and regulatory issues that had constrained the project. Following these talks, Kuwait amended its housing complex development law last month, reflecting items such as ▲ deletion of the mandatory use of Islamic finance ▲ easing of minimum site area ▲ expansion of mortgage loans.
LH plans to complete a feasibility study for the pilot dwelling complex investment project by the end of this year, establish a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the Kuwait government in 2026, and begin full-scale construction in 2027. It also plans to hold an investment briefing session within the year for domestic corporations in construction, finance, and other sectors that hope to make a joint entry.
After LH won the project management (PM) service for the Abdullah new town, the entry of domestic engineering corporations into the Kuwaiti construction market using this has been accelerating. On the 22nd, HanmiGlobal, which is jointly carrying out the new town project management service with LH, won three construction management services ordered by the Public Authority for Housing Welfare of Kuwait worth about 31 billion won.
Going further, LH is seeking ways to expand the fields in which domestic corporations can enter the Kuwaiti market. LH plans to cooperate with Samsung Electronics on applying a "smart home solution" for a pleasant living environment and energy savings. With ISU Chemical, it will pursue a "vertical farm-type smart farm" suited to Kuwait's climate conditions.
Kang O-sun, head of LH's regional balance division, said, "As we have achieved the resumption of the investment project and legal revisions through close cooperation with the Public Authority for Housing Welfare of Kuwait, we plan to push the project forward without a hitch," adding, "Starting with Kuwait, we will continue working to export K-housing culture by leveraging LH's accumulated experience and capabilities."