Kuwait city: Kuwait's Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) is pressing ahead with plans to expand construction of new cities and complete a full digital transformation in order to meet growing demand for housing and improve quality of life, Deputy Director General for Planning and Design at PAHW Naser Khraibut said Monday.
According to Kuwait News Agency, Khraibut spoke at the Gulf Digital Construction Forum 2025, organized by the Kuwait Society of Engineers' Union of Engineering Offices and Consulting Houses. He emphasized that the government has been providing housing for citizens since the 1950s, with Kuwaiti families becoming eligible to apply for a housing unit upon marriage. The aim is not merely to build residential areas, but to create fully integrated communities.
The new cities are being designed as comprehensive urban environments that include schools, government services, commercial areas, health centers, and other essential facilities. With the growing population, the government is focused on developing large new cities. Currently, around 70 construction contracts worth about KD 2.8 billion (approximately USD 9 billion) are underway, necessitating the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to efficiently manage these large-scale projects.
Kuwait is in the process of designing three major new cities expected to provide about 170,000 housing units, effectively doubling the size of the country's urban areas. The significant challenge is the vast land allocated for each city, ranging from 60 to 140 square kilometers, which will increase demand for water and energy and bring other pressures. This requires precise planning and systematic implementation to avoid serious future problems.
Approximately 1,100 apartments have been completed, along with public facilities in the West Abdullah Al-Mubarak project. Some projects are still in the design phase, including one that will offer 9,800 housing units. Khraibut also outlined three main directions for the digital transformation of housing projects, including a Project Information Management System (PMIS) to replace traditional methods with a fully digital platform for real-time monitoring. Additionally, a "digital twin" project will integrate BIM with geographic information systems (GIS).