Can foreign Muslims buy property in Makkah now?

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Can foreign Muslims actually buy property in Makkah now?

Yes. Foreign Muslims can currently buy property directly in approved parts of Makkah, including Muslim buyers who live outside Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s new Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis has changed the old position substantially. The law allows non-Saudis to own property inside designated geographic zones, while Article 2 reserves individual ownership in Makkah and Madinah specifically for Muslims. REGA, Saudi Arabia’s Real Estate General Authority, makes the point even clearer in its current ownership matrix: resident foreign Muslims can buy inside approved Makkah zones, and non-resident foreign Muslims can do the same.

That second category is important. A Muslim living in Indonesia, France, Pakistan or the UK does not have to become a Saudi resident first just to qualify as a foreign individual buyer in an eligible Makkah zone.

The opening is also operational now. The foreign-ownership law entered into force earlier this year, the Cabinet subsequently approved the implementing regulations and geographic zones, and REGA currently directs foreign buyers to the Saudi Properties platform to check eligibility and permitted locations.

So the old blanket answer — that foreigners cannot own property in Makkah — is now outdated. The more accurate answer is narrower: Muslim foreigners can buy, but only where Saudi Arabia has specifically opened ownership.

Buyer	Can currently buy directly in an approved Makkah zone?	Must live in Saudi Arabia?	Main condition
Saudi citizen	Yes	No special foreign rule	Normal Saudi property rules
Foreign Muslim resident	Yes	Already resident	Property must be in an approved zone
Foreign Muslim non-resident	Yes	No	Must complete foreign-buyer onboarding
Foreign non-Muslim individual	No	Residence does not change the rule	Individual ownership in Makkah is reserved for Muslims
Saudi company with foreign shareholders	Potentially	Company rules apply	Separate corporate ownership regime

Why are people still saying foreigners cannot buy in Makkah?

Because the Makkah rules changed very recently, and several older restrictions are still being repeated online as if nothing happened.

For years, Saudi real-estate law treated Makkah and Madinah much more restrictively than the rest of the country. That history still shapes property guides, broker explanations and older legal articles. Saudi Arabia then introduced an updated foreign-ownership law, followed by implementing regulations and a geographic-zone system.

There was also an awkward transition period. The law could say that Muslim foreigners were eligible in Makkah while buyers still needed the government to define exactly where that ownership would be allowed. Anyone reading during that period could reasonably conclude that the right existed on paper but was difficult to use in practice.

That uncertainty has largely disappeared. REGA now has an official Saudi Properties portal, an ownership matrix and approved geographic zones. The Cabinet has also approved the executive regulations governing the process.

This explains much of the contradictory information online today. Some sources are describing the previous system; others are describing the new one.

Does a foreign Muslim need Saudi residency to buy property in Makkah?

No. Saudi residency is currently not required for a foreign Muslim to buy inside an approved Makkah ownership zone.

REGA explicitly separates foreign individuals into resident and non-resident categories. Both may own in Makkah if they are Muslim and the property falls within an eligible geographic area.

The practical process differs, however. A Saudi resident already has an Iqama and is connected to the Kingdom’s digital identity infrastructure. An overseas buyer has more setup work before reaching the property-transfer stage.

Saudi Arabia’s executive regulations require a non-resident foreign individual to obtain an approved Saudi digital identity before buying. The buyer must also have a Saudi bank account and a Saudi mobile number linked to that identity.

Those requirements make overseas purchases more cumbersome than purchases by existing residents, but they do not amount to a residency requirement.

Requirement	Foreign Muslim living in Saudi Arabia	Foreign Muslim living abroad
Eligible for approved Makkah zones	Yes	Yes
Saudi residency required	Already resident	No
Saudi digital identity	Existing resident identity infrastructure	Must obtain approved digital identity
Saudi bank account	Used in transaction process	Required
Saudi mobile number	Normally already available	Must be linked to digital identity
Property registration	Required	Required

Can foreign Muslims buy anywhere in Makkah?

No. Muslim status gives a foreign buyer access to the Makkah ownership regime, but the property still has to sit inside an approved geographic zone.

This is probably the most important restriction for an actual buyer.

Saudi Arabia has deliberately avoided opening every Makkah parcel to international ownership. Article 2 of the foreign-ownership law gives the government the power to decide the permitted geographic areas, the types of property rights available there, maximum foreign ownership percentages, usufruct periods and other controls.

There is also a useful comparison with the rest of Saudi Arabia. A legally resident foreign individual may generally own one home for personal residence outside the designated zones under the law’s separate residential exception. Makkah and Madinah are expressly excluded from that exception.

A foreign Muslim therefore cannot choose an arbitrary apartment somewhere in Makkah and rely solely on being Muslim. The exact property has to qualify under the Makkah zone system.

REGA currently tells buyers to use the Saudi Properties interactive map, which shows the permitted boundaries and applicable ownership rules. For a real transaction, that map matters more than a developer saying that a project is “open to foreigners.”

Which parts of Makkah are currently open to foreign buyers?

Foreign Muslim buyers currently have access to several major Makkah developments and designated areas, including some of the city’s most important large-scale projects.

When Saudi Arabia approved the geographic scopes, REGA identified Abraj Makkah, Al Manar, Burj Ajyad, King Salman Gate, Tilal Village, Jabal Omar, Thakher Makkah, Smou Suburb, Masar and Makkah Zones 1 and 2 among the approved areas.

The composition of that list tells us quite a lot about the opening. Jabal Omar, Masar, Thakher and King Salman Gate are large developments tied to Makkah’s broader urban transformation. Saudi Arabia has therefore opened meaningful projects rather than creating a tiny foreign-buyer zone on the edge of the city.

At the same time, this remains a controlled market. The approved list represents selected districts and developments, not the whole municipality.

We also found minor inconsistencies in secondary reporting around the exact counting and naming of some numbered scopes. For that reason, the safest way to check a specific apartment is currently REGA’s live geographic map rather than reproducing a static media list and assuming it will never change.

Makkah area identified after approval of the geographic scopes	What it broadly represents
Abraj Makkah	Central tower development
Al Manar	Urban district
Burj Ajyad	Central development
King Salman Gate	Major redevelopment project
Tilal Village	Planned development
Jabal Omar	Large mixed-use development near the central area
Thakher Makkah	Large mixed-use development
Smou Suburb	Planned development
Masar	Major urban regeneration corridor
Makkah Zones 1 and 2	Government-defined mapped ownership scopes

Are foreign Muslims really buying freehold property in Makkah, or only 99-year leases?

Foreign Muslims can acquire actual ownership in eligible Makkah zones; the frequently quoted 99-year period applies to usufruct rights rather than automatically limiting every foreign purchase.

The distinction is explicit in the law. Saudi Arabia separately refers to ownership of real estate and to other real rights over real estate. The government can decide which rights are allowed in each geographic area and can set a maximum duration for usufruct.

That produces several possible legal structures. A buyer may acquire ownership where the applicable zone allows it. Another property could be offered through a usufruct arrangement, giving the holder the right to use and benefit from the property for a defined period. A normal tenancy remains something else again.

The 99-year figure therefore should not be read as “all foreigners in Makkah only get a 99-year lease.” Current geographic rules can allow long-term usufruct while also permitting ownership.

For buyers, the practical question is simple: what exactly will appear in the registered real-estate right for this unit?

Marketing words such as “ownership,” “freehold,” “residence” and “99 years” are too loose to answer that on their own.

Property right	What the buyer actually gets	Fixed expiry?	Possible for foreign buyers in approved areas?
Ownership	Registered ownership of the property right	No automatic 99-year expiry	Yes, where permitted
Usufruct	Right to use and benefit from the property	Yes	Yes, subject to zone rules
Tenancy	Contractual right to occupy	Yes	Yes, but this is ordinary renting
Shares in a property vehicle	Financial interest in a company or fund	Depends on structure	Separate from owning the unit itself

Is a foreign Muslim limited to buying one home in Makkah?

No general one-property limit applies to a Muslim foreign buyer simply because the property is in an approved Makkah zone.

This is another place where two Saudi rules often get mixed together.

The foreign-ownership law allows a legally resident non-Saudi to own one property for personal residence outside the designated geographic areas. That special one-home route expressly excludes Makkah and Madinah.

Makkah purchases instead operate through the approved geographic-zone rules. The law does not apply the same one-home wording to a Muslim individual buying inside those Makkah zones.

That gives the approved-zone regime more flexibility than many summaries suggest. A buyer should still check whether a particular project, right type or future regulation introduces additional limits, but “foreign Muslims may own only one apartment in Makkah” is not an accurate summary of the current national law.

Do foreign Muslims need Premium Residency to own property in Makkah?

No. Premium Residency is currently a separate program and is not required before an eligible foreign Muslim buys property in Makkah.

This point follows directly from REGA’s current ownership matrix. Ordinary resident foreign Muslims and ordinary non-resident foreign Muslims both appear as eligible categories for designated Makkah zones. Premium Residency holders appear separately.

Premium Residency can still be useful for someone who wants broader residence rights in Saudi Arabia. The Real Estate Owner Premium Residency product currently uses a SAR 4 million real-estate threshold, subject to its own conditions.

Property ownership and immigration status therefore overlap in some situations without becoming the same thing.

A foreign Muslim could buy an eligible SAR 2 million Makkah apartment without automatically receiving Premium Residency. Someone buying qualifying real estate worth SAR 4 million or more could potentially use that investment for a separate Premium Residency application if all the program conditions are met.

Does buying property in Makkah automatically give a foreigner Saudi residency?

No. Owning a property in Makkah does not automatically turn a foreign Muslim buyer into a Saudi resident.

The foreign-ownership law says that ownership does not itself create additional rights or privileges beyond those attached to the real-estate right.

Saudi Arabia does have a Real Estate Owner Premium Residency category, so a sufficiently large qualifying purchase can create a route toward residency. The Premium Residency Center currently requires at least SAR 4 million in qualifying real estate or qualifying real-estate rights.

Its rules also now cover certain off-plan residential purchases. For an off-plan unit, the buyer must meet additional conditions including minimum payment requirements and use an REGA-approved developer.

The distinction is important for overseas buyers. A property purchase can support a residency application in the right circumstances, but the deed itself is not a residence permit.

Can foreign Muslims buy off-plan property in Makkah?

Yes, eligible foreign Muslims can potentially buy off-plan property in Makkah, provided the development sits inside an approved foreign-ownership area and complies with Saudi off-plan rules.

The current foreign-ownership law does not confine Muslim buyers to completed apartments. Saudi Arabia already has a regulatory system for off-plan real-estate sales, and the government’s Premium Residency rules now explicitly contemplate qualifying off-plan residential units as well.

That gives us a useful indication that Saudi policy expects internationally eligible buyers to participate in new developments, which is particularly relevant in a city where projects such as Masar, Jabal Omar, Thakher and King Salman Gate are central to the current development pipeline.

Still, buying off-plan introduces another layer of due diligence. The foreigner has to qualify, the geographic location has to qualify, the developer and project have to comply with the relevant Saudi rules, and the contract has to give the buyer a property right that can ultimately be registered.

For an overseas Muslim buyer today, checking the official zone and the project’s regulatory status is more useful than relying on a sales agent saying that a unit is “foreign investor friendly.”

How does an overseas Muslim actually buy property in Makkah?

An overseas Muslim can now start the Makkah buying process without becoming a Saudi resident, but Saudi Arabia requires the buyer to enter its digital, banking and registration systems.

REGA’s Saudi Properties platform is the official gateway for non-Saudi ownership. For someone already living in the Kingdom, the process connects to the existing Saudi identity infrastructure.

A non-resident has extra steps. The executive regulations require an approved Saudi digital identity, a Saudi bank account in the buyer’s own name and a Saudi mobile number linked to the digital identity.

Once the buyer and property pass the eligibility checks, the transaction goes through the formal registration process. The law makes registration particularly important because the foreign buyer’s property right becomes legally effective through the Real Estate Registry.

Financial flows connected with acquiring or disposing of the property also have to follow the electronic payment requirements in the executive regulations.

In practice, the transaction is closer to a regulated domestic property purchase with foreign onboarding than to an offshore investor wiring money directly to a developer and receiving a private contract.

How does Saudi Arabia check whether a foreign Makkah buyer is Muslim?

Saudi law clearly requires an individual foreign buyer in Makkah to be Muslim, although the publicly available rules do not currently provide one universal document checklist for proving religion in every case.

The legal condition itself leaves little room for ambiguity. Article 2 restricts non-Saudi individual ownership in Makkah and Madinah to Muslim natural persons, and REGA repeats the Muslim-only condition in both its guidance and ownership matrix.

The administrative detail is less transparent. The published executive regulations explain the identity, bank-account, mobile-number, application and registration requirements for foreign buyers, but they do not set out a single public rule saying that every applicant worldwide must provide the same specific religious certificate.

We would therefore avoid making up a universal requirement such as “you need a mosque letter” or “your passport must state your religion.” The exact evidence requested can depend on the official application process and the buyer’s documentation.

One thing is already clear from the law: trying to bypass the requirement with false information carries serious consequences. Saudi Arabia can impose a fine of up to 5% of the value of the property right, capped at SAR 10 million, and deliberately misleading information used to obtain ownership can lead to a court-ordered sale of that right.

What extra taxes and fees should a foreign Makkah buyer expect?

A foreign Makkah transaction can carry a meaningful extra cost because Saudi Arabia combines its normal 5% Real Estate Transaction Tax with a separate 2% fee under the non-Saudi ownership regime for relevant dispositions in Makkah.

Saudi Arabia’s general Real Estate Transaction Tax is 5% on taxable real-estate disposals. That tax applies across the wider property market rather than being created specifically for foreigners.

The new foreign-ownership regulations add another layer. REGA’s executive regulations set a 2% fee on the value of dispositions of real rights by non-Saudis in Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh and Jeddah.

The two charges should therefore be examined separately rather than treating the foreign-buyer fee as a replacement for the normal transaction tax.

For scale, 5% of SAR 2 million is SAR 100,000, while 2% is another SAR 40,000. That creates SAR 140,000 of headline exposure if both charges apply to the transaction in question.

The exact amount paid by the buyer can still depend on the structure of the transaction, exemptions and who is legally or contractually responsible for each charge. Brokerage, financing, registration and legal costs can add more.

Cost item	Headline rate	Example on SAR 2 million
Real Estate Transaction Tax	5%	SAR 100,000
Non-Saudi disposition fee in Makkah	2%	SAR 40,000
Combined headline amount if both apply	7%	SAR 140,000
Brokerage, registration, financing and legal costs	Varies	Additional

Can a foreign investor use a company to buy property in Makkah instead?

Sometimes, but company ownership follows a separate set of rules and does not give an individual foreign investor unlimited access to Makkah.

The current Saudi regime distinguishes sharply between individual buyers, Saudi companies with foreign shareholders, listed companies and foreign companies.

An unlisted Saudi company established under Saudi company law and partly or wholly owned by non-Saudis may own property inside approved geographic zones, including Makkah and Madinah. The executive regulations also allow that type of company to acquire property inside the geographic scope without the Ministry of Investment approval required in some other corporate situations.

Foreign companies incorporated outside Saudi Arabia sit in a different category. REGA’s current ownership matrix does not give them the same Makkah access as qualifying Saudi companies with foreign shareholders.

Listed Saudi companies and investment funds are governed partly through Capital Market Authority rules, adding another layer.

So incorporating a company can be relevant for a genuine business structure, but it is not a simple shortcut for someone who personally fails the Makkah individual-ownership rules.

Is Saudi Arabia really creating an international property market in Makkah?

Yes. Saudi Arabia has now created a genuine international ownership market in selected parts of Makkah, although access remains deliberately narrower than in a conventional global freehold market.

The clearest evidence comes from how many pieces have now moved together. Muslim non-residents are explicitly eligible. Geographic zones have been approved. Major developments such as Masar, Jabal Omar, Thakher and King Salman Gate appear within the opened areas. REGA has launched an official digital ownership route linked to the property-registration system. The executive regulations now specify how overseas individuals enter the process.

This goes considerably further than allowing foreigners to buy shares in a Saudi listed company that happens to own Makkah real estate.

The scale of the opening should still be kept in perspective. Large parts of Makkah remain outside the foreign-ownership zones. Individual non-Muslim foreigners cannot buy through the Muslim individual route. Foreign buyers face specific onboarding and transaction costs. The government can also adjust geographic scopes, ownership percentages and permitted real rights.

Saudi Arabia has chosen a selective opening rather than citywide foreign freehold. Even so, it is a major shift for a market that was historically among the most restricted in the Kingdom.

So can foreign Muslims buy property in Makkah now?

Yes. Foreign Muslims can currently buy and directly own property in approved Makkah zones, whether they already live in Saudi Arabia or live overseas.

The strongest evidence comes directly from Saudi Arabia’s current rules. Article 2 of the foreign-ownership law reserves individual Makkah ownership to Muslims. REGA’s ownership matrix then explicitly marks both resident and non-resident Muslim foreigners as eligible within designated Makkah zones. The government has since approved actual geographic areas, and the Saudi Properties platform is operating as the official route for these transactions.

Several common claims are therefore outdated. Foreign Muslims do not need Premium Residency before buying. Overseas Muslims are not excluded simply because they lack an Iqama. The 99-year concept relates to usufruct rights and does not mean every foreign buyer receives only a long lease. The general one-home exception for foreign residents elsewhere in Saudi Arabia also does not define how purchases inside Makkah’s approved zones work.

The main restriction is geographic. Muslim status makes the buyer eligible, but the chosen Makkah property still has to fall within an officially approved area and satisfy the applicable registration rules.

For someone asking the question today, the answer is considerably clearer than it was during the transition to the new law: foreign Muslim ownership in Makkah is real and operational. The next question for an actual buyer is no longer whether Saudi law allows it at all, but whether the specific project, unit and property right qualify under REGA’s current map and registration system.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Abdullah 🇸🇦

Founder of Expat Legal Counsel Saudi

Abdullah is the founder of Expat Legal Counsel Saudi, a platform helping foreigners navigate Saudi legal matters with clear, confidential, and practical support. He is familiar with Saudi Arabia’s real estate market and the legal questions that foreign residents and investors often need to understand.

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SANDS OF WEALTH

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