The Public Authority for Housing Welfare’s Women’s Housing Affairs Committee conducted a lottery Thursday for 370 rental houses in Taima and Sulaibiya, targeting female Kuwaiti citizens with applications registered in 2020 or before who met all eligibility criteria after updating their personal data. Committee chairwoman Sheikha Bibi Al-Yousef said in a press release that the draw focused exclusively on those who had refreshed their information through official channels and received notifications via the Sahel application. The authority has made such lotteries a regular feature as housing units in these areas become available from various government sources.
Sheikha Bibi Al-Yousef stated that priority in the allocation goes to applications with updated data that fully satisfy the required conditions, adding that any without current records would be excluded from consideration. The committee operates under the slogan of serving citizens directly, with distributions tied to the availability of units provided through coordination with the ministries of interior and defense as well as the housing authority itself. This approach has allowed the body to steadily address a backlog of requests from women in need of stable accommodation.
The committee has received approximately 7,111 housing applications from female citizens since its establishment, according to figures released by Sheikha Bibi Al-Yousef. Around 2,400 of those had been updated as of mid-July, with the total climbing to roughly 3,900 in recent weeks as more applicants responded to calls for verification. These numbers reflect the scale of demand the authority continues to manage across its rental housing programs.
A three-month grace period for data updates, announced in July, runs until Oct. 19, the committee said, after which any outstanding applications will be canceled. Sheikha Bibi Al-Yousef warned that failure to complete the update process by the deadline would result in the loss of housing eligibility. Notifications have been sent directly to qualifying women, urging them to act promptly to secure their place in future distributions.
Female citizens with disabilities receive particular priority, a committee assessment found, with up to five years added to the seniority of their applications when supported by a recent medical certificate verifying moderate or severe disability. This policy aligns with the authority’s focus on vulnerable groups, including widows, divorcees and those with limited incomes, as seen in earlier lotteries. The Public Authority for Housing Welfare established the women’s committee as a permanent entity in 2025 to strengthen oversight of such cases.
Previous draws by the same committee have distributed thousands of units in Taima and Sulaibiya since operations began, building on an August allocation of 330 homes and a July draw for 205 more, Kuwait Times records show. A larger low-cost housing development expected to yield nearly 9,800 units is slated for completion in early 2028, with many reserved for women currently in temporary rental areas once infrastructure is finalized. The authority has stressed the importance of beneficiaries occupying their assigned homes within three months or risk losing them following inspections.
