Munira Al-Amir, Chairwoman of the Technical Committee at the Municipal Council

She said the most important aspects of the amendment include updating the definitions of hotel buildings, hotel units, public services, health facilities and hotel services, in accordance with modern urban concepts. She added that the term ‘motel’ was deleted from the list, since it is not present in the local market. She added the proposed system expanded the scope of plots permitted for hotel construction to include investment and commercial plots, coastal strip plots and service sector (No. 16), in addition to the designated plots or buildings as per the previous decisions of the council.

She revealed that the list specified the minimum plot area in Kuwait City at 750 square meters for investment plots and 500 square meters for commercial plots, while outside Kuwait City, the minimum should not be less than 1,000 square meters for investment plots and 750 square meters for commercial plots. She indicated that the amendments include a technically precise reorganization of building percentages in and outside the city, setting additional percentages for public services that vary according to the plot size.

She cited as an example the plots measuring less than 1,500 square meters within the city that are allowed to add 50 percent of the building area for public services, while plots larger than 1,500 square meters can add up to 100 percent.

Outside the city, the increase ranges from 40 to 70 percent for investment plots, and 70 to 100 percent for commercial plots. She also clarified that the new system introduced special regulations for mixed-use cases, allowing hotels integrated with separate commercial activities to be built with special licenses. She pointed out that commercial areas should not exceed 40 percent of the total plot area, with a minimum project area of 1,500 square meters within the city and 3,000 square meters outside. She disclosed that the new schedule specifies areas excluded from the building percentage, like the stairs, corridors, elevators, skylights, service floors, evacuation floors, garden floors, basements and parking floors, to avoid confusion in calculating the overall building percentages. She affirmed that the provisions were formulated in accordance with the latest engineering codes, which were approved as per the Kuwait Code. Regarding design, she said the amendments stipulate that the size of a hotel unit should not be less than 20 square meters, and that the width of corridors between units should not be less than two meters and not more than three meters, with the necessity of adhering to the Kuwait Code’s standards for accessibility according to the overall design.

She added the size of the hotel management office is set at a maximum of 300 square meters. She stated that the amendments include incorporating the requirements of the Accessibility Code, making it mandatory to allocate 10 percent of rooms and suites for people with special needs. She stressed that this reflects the Kuwait Municipality’s commitment to follow inclusive design standards. She went on to say that the new schedule regulates the mechanism for issuing commercial licenses for hotels, allowing separate commercial licenses for commercial units and public services according to specific percentages. She said parking requirements were also updated to match the type of plot and the number of rooms and suites, while fully adhering to the Accessibility Code. She asserted that these amendments are part of ongoing efforts to develop and update building regulations in line with the efforts of the State to support tourism, diversify the national economy, and enhance investment attractiveness in the hotel sector.