Barwa announces the identities of Qatari families benefiting from its housing program

The families, who earn medium income, are expected to get their apartments at the end of this year, immediately after the completion of the project.

"Barwa residential project is about to be completed and only the final touches remain to be applied before we can begin delivering the residential units to the selected families," a source at Barwa said.

The company selected the 122 families, 52 % of the correct applications, after verifying that they all met the program's terms & conditions. A number of applicants were not accepted during the process owing to non-compliance with terms such as limited income and social housing needs.

The preliminary selection process required all applicants' salaries to be lower than QR16,000 for their application to be accepted.

Barwa then had the applicants' documents examined to ensure validity of the information and all details submitted to the Barwa Housing Program social committees.

In particular, certain conditions had to be satisfied such as non-ownership of a private house and the ability to pay the monthly rent of a residential home while also being able to meet the various other costs of living a dignified life and meeting other family commitments.

During meetings with applicants, program committees requested important information such as bank account details, documents from the Doha Financial Services Market concerning company share ownership and supporting residential & commercial registration papers to decide the worthiness of each applicant to receive a Barwa Residential home.

"632 Qatari families applied for BARWA Housing Program and 495 families were accepted at the first phase. 469 applicants who met the conditions, 95% from the correct applications, were chosen. After calling these people, only 233 responded; they resemble around 50% of the applications which meet the required conditions and terms" the source added.

"After studying carefully all the attached documents and making ground visits, 108 applications were refused since they didn't meet the determined conditions. At last, the final result was choosing 122 Qatari families, which means 52 %, to benefit from Barwa Housing Program" the source stated.

137 applications, out of total number of 632, included incomplete documents which couldn't be checked by program committees, while 26 applications didn't meet the determined conditions.

The total number of Qatari families who wanted to benefit from Barwa Housing Program and satisfied the conditions was 469, while only 233 applications were received after completing the required documents.

The 108 non-accepted applications were refused for the following reasons:
1- family monthly income exceeds QR16000
2- The applicant owns his private house, or has properties for the family which provides him with money.
3- The family members exceed the specified number for safety conditions and necessary requirement which must meet with the program terms.
4- The families don't have the requested number of members, for giving the opportunity for other more needy families to get a home.
5- The monthly salary exceeds the limit, especially after raising the salaries of the public sector.
6- Some applicants pulled over their applications for special reasons related to their way of living which is not provided by the program.

The final results which resulted in choosing 122 Qatari families for benefiting from Barwa Housing Program are classified as follows: 106 married, 12 divorced, 4 widows, 48 families live in a common accommodation and 10 got an evacuation order. The committees accepted all divorced and widows and those who got an evacuation order.

Reopening of receiving only Qatari applicants within two weeks only

A source at Barwa stated that Qatari's are allowed to apply for the Barwa Housing Program again within a period of two weeks only, for the benefit of families with medium income. This decision serves Qatari citizens as one of BARWA's main objectives to be a company with national message and social role.

"The decision of reopening the door to receive new applications for Barwa Housing Program goes back to the company's strategy to provide suitable quality of life for Qatari families with medium income and matching conditions" the same source said.

He added "applying to the program will be through the company's website and Thursday June 26, is the deadline. For those who want to benefit from this offer, they must visit our website to apply and get informed about all the documents required, in order to be delivered during the personal interview. the interview will be exclusive to those who meet all the conditions and terms of the program".

The applicants must prepare the following documents:
1- new detailed salary certification (for the applicant)
2- new detailed salary certification for the contributors in family expenses(only if exists)
3- passport copy for the applicant and his family members
4- new photo of the applicant
5- copy of the valid contract of house rent
6- martial status certificate (married, widow, divorced)
7- certificate of bank loans
8- documented bank account (must not exceed 6 months)
9- copy of trade record
10- legal order of evacuation from the court (if exist)
11- copies of birth certificates of the children
12- certificate of salary deduction by court order(if exist)
13- copies of receipts of school expenses (if exist)
14- certificate from land registry (to prove the existence of properties or not)
15- Certificate from the governmental housing showing if the applicant is benefiting of a house or VIP residence or special needs accommodation, or none of these.

Non-Qatari families, who successfully met the terms and conditions, are now in the process of having their documents verified.

A source at Barwa said that non-Qatari families who successfully met the terms and conditions to pass the preliminary selection process are now in the process of having their documents verified, and that the names of the selected families will be announced soon.

Barwa will include families from a variety of communities in the program to ensure that there are no biases based on nationality or any other factor. From the beginning, Barwa assumed the responsibility of giving equal opportunities to the largest possible number of nationalities.

The non-Qatari families were selected according to their limited income, as well as other circumstances such as family size, social status and monthly commitments as well as total income.

Built on two separate plots in West Sailya and South Doha, Barwa Housing Program on its whole will have a monumental 31 buildings in each plot.

Seventeen of the buildings have a 3 bedroom design and 14 of them have a 2 bedroom design.

Each building will house 32 apartments totaling 2000 thoughtfully created and excellently built homes per site. The plan is to complete the project by the end of 2008. The built up area of the project will total 292,353 square meters.

The project has ample facilities for the rest and relaxation of its tenants including green areas and a fitted playground for children.

The project includes a clubhouse, gym, game rooms, multi-purpose hall, basketball court, tennis court, and swimming pool, retail shops that will likely be taken over by a large supermarket chain and a 6 room nursery schools and play ground.

One of the projects most outstanding features is the fact that Barwa has planned dedicated ground floor space in each building for people with special needs.

Moreover, the faithful will find comfort in the fact that a Mosque will grace the project. Large parking spaces have been made available, and every square inch of space has been landscaped in order to create a pleasant family atmosphere in a secure neighbourhood.

Barwa Housing Program is a practical contribution by Barwa to tackle the high inflation that Qatar is experiencing, support the development plans of the country and lessen the housing crisis and high housing rents witnessed by the exceptional situation created by Qatar's stupendous economic growth.

The program has been established to provide high specification homes with rents much lower than the market average, enabling beneficiaries with middle incomes to live in distinguished homes.