The Saudi Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) will temporarily halt the acceptance of applications for loans from the fund, according to Eng. Youssef Al-Zoghaiby, Fund director. With its conversion to a bank, the fund is looking to revamp its product offering to include more funding options; hence, the halt. The conversion will allow the fund to increase its cooperation with the private sector and to allow for more investment schemes for the fund, which would boost liquidity and speed-up the lending process, according to Al-Zoghaiby. The waiting list reached 425,000 applications, requiring SAR212 billion in funding, whilst it had 115,000 approved applications, in need of SAR55 billion. Non-performing loans amounted to SAR30 billion from 100,000 borrowers. (SPA)