BOVIS LEND LEASE, the construction group, has teamed up with the
British architect behind London’s “erotic gherkin” office skyscraper
on a $13 billion (£7.4 billion) plan to build 750,000 new homes in
Saudi Arabia.

The pair are working with Saudi Construction Group, a new company
backed by some of the Kingdom’s richest businessmen, to develop a huge
site about three miles outside the capital, Riyadh. The backers plan
to float the group — which could be worth about £1 billion — in London
or Riyadh by the middle of next year.

The company is the brainchild of Saifee Durbar, a broker to Saudi
billionaires investing in Europe, Paul Bloomfield, the veteran
property dealmaker, and Sheikh Faisal al-Sharif, chairman of DGI, a
company that is researching a $2 billion (£1.1 billion) petrochemicals
plant in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Construction Group is designed to cash in on the Saudi
Government’s plans to provide a home for every Saudi citizen. The
Saudi Government believes that there is a need for between three and
four million new homes over the next ten to fifteen years.

The oil-rich country currently houses more than 26 million people but
is one of the world’s fastest-growing countries.

Foster & Partners, the architect behind Swiss Re’s landmark office
building near the Tower of London, dubbed the “erotic gherkin” will
create a master-plan for the huge housing settlement. The site totals
seven million square metres and will accommodate about 750,000 new
homes.

Bovis Lend Lease will be the lead contractor for the project, which
will cost between $6 billion and $7 billion and will be worth between
$10 billion and $13 billion when complete.

Foster & Partners is keen to create a ground-breaking development that
provides new high standards of modern living in Saudi Arabia.

Foster & Partners has created some of the world’s most impressive
modern architecture, including the glass dome over Berlin's Reichstag,
Hong Kong’s airport and Bilbao’s new Metro. Nigel Hugill, the former
managing director of Chelsfield, the property company formed by
Elliott Bernerd, was instrumental in getting Bovis Lend Lease involved
with the Saudi housing project.

Saif Durbar, who helped to set up the Saudi Construction Group, is a
low-profile Middle Eastern businessman who has helped to fund a string
of property development projects in Britain and mainland Europe,
including Palm Beach, a casino and hotel complex outside Cannes. He
lost a $1 billion fortune in 1995 on a bond deal that went wrong.