Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Riyadh
SUMMARY
Yes. Foreigners can buy property in Riyadh now, including buyers who live outside Saudi Arabia, but access depends on the buyer's status and the exact location of the property.
The biggest practical change is that the reform is no longer just a law on paper. The ownership law is in force, the geographical scopes have been approved, the Saudi Properties portal is operating, and non-residents now have a defined route to complete a purchase.
Riyadh is not fully open. A non-resident foreign buyer normally has to stay inside approved ownership zones, while a foreigner legally resident in Saudi Arabia can also own one home for personal use outside those zones.
The map matters more than the citywide headline. Much of the first wave of foreign access is concentrated in large master developments such as Qiddiya, New Murabba, Diriyah Gate, King Salman Park, SEDRA and KAFD rather than the ordinary resale market across Riyadh.
Buying from abroad is now workable, but it requires Saudi-side setup. A non-resident buyer needs an approved Saudi digital identity, a Saudi mobile number linked to it and a Saudi bank account in their own name before completing the transaction.
Property ownership and residency are separate. A foreigner can buy an eligible Riyadh property without automatically receiving Saudi residency; the SAR 4 million Real Estate Owner Premium Residency route is a separate application with its own conditions.
The 5% Real Estate Transaction Tax should not be confused with the separate 2% fee imposed when a non-Saudi disposes of a real-estate right in Riyadh. That 2% charge is mainly an exit-cost issue, not an automatic extra purchase tax on every foreign acquisition.
Riyadh's market backdrop is unusual. Residential transactions fell sharply in 2025 while apartment and villa prices still rose, which points to an affordability squeeze and thin transaction depth rather than a simple demand boom.
The huge housing pipeline cuts both ways. Population growth, business relocation and foreign demand can absorb a lot of new stock, but buyers in early phases of major master developments may later compete with thousands of newly released units from the same or nearby projects.
The legal right to resell exists, but resale liquidity is still the least tested part of the new regime. Foreign ownership is too recent to tell us how deep the international secondary market will become across each designated district.
So the answer is firmly yes, but the real due-diligence question is no longer whether foreigners can buy in Riyadh. It is whether this specific buyer can acquire this specific property, in this specific zone, with a clear title, workable financing and a realistic exit plan.
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Can foreigners really buy property in Riyadh now?
Yes, foreigners can currently buy property in Riyadh, including people who do not live in Saudi Arabia, but the address and the buyer's residency status determine what they can buy.
Saudi Arabia's new Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis is now in force, its implementing regulations have been issued, Riyadh's approved foreign-ownership areas have been mapped, and applications can be processed through REGA's Saudi Properties portal. That moves the issue well beyond the announcement stage.
The crucial change came in two steps. The new law started applying in early 2026, but at that point the detailed geographical areas were still missing. The Council of Ministers approved those geographical zones and the final implementing regulations in June 2026. Since then, the Riyadh rules have become much clearer.
A foreigner living outside Saudi Arabia can buy within Riyadh's designated ownership zones. A foreigner who legally resides in Saudi Arabia gets an additional option: one home for their own residence can be owned outside those zones as well.
So a headline saying "foreigners can now buy Riyadh property" is accurate. Saying "Riyadh is completely open to foreign buyers" would go too far.
| Foreign buyer | Can buy in approved Riyadh zones? | Can buy elsewhere in Riyadh? | Main condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-resident foreign individual | Yes | Generally no | Property must fall within an approved geographical scope |
| Foreign individual legally resident in Saudi Arabia | Yes | Yes, for one personal home | Outside-zone property must be for the resident's own housing |
| Foreign company | Yes, subject to its category | Sometimes | Corporate registration and purpose rules apply |
| Saudi company with foreign shareholders | Yes | Can have wider rights for business or employee housing | Specific company rules and approvals apply |
Why are people still getting different answers about foreign ownership in Riyadh?
A lot of the conflicting information about buying Riyadh property comes from timing: the rules genuinely changed several times within a short period.
For years, foreign ownership in Saudi Arabia operated under a much more restrictive law dating back to 2000. Then the updated law was approved in 2025 and came into force in early 2026.
There was still a catch. When REGA announced that the new system had started, it also said the detailed geographical ownership document would follow. A foreign buyer could therefore read that the law was "in force" while still being unable to identify every Riyadh property actually open to them.
That uncertainty largely disappeared in June 2026, when the Council of Ministers approved the implementing regulations and geographical scopes. REGA then confirmed Riyadh's designated areas.
Older articles can therefore be accurate for the moment when they were written and still give the wrong answer today.
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Can a foreigner living outside Saudi Arabia buy a home in Riyadh?
Yes, a non-resident foreigner can now buy eligible Riyadh real estate without first moving to Saudi Arabia or obtaining an ordinary Saudi residence permit.
REGA explicitly includes non-resident individuals in the new ownership system. That is one of the biggest practical changes because Saudi residence is no longer the basic gateway into every foreign property purchase.
The non-resident route does involve some local setup. Under the implementing regulations, a foreign individual living abroad must obtain an approved Saudi digital identity, open a Saudi bank account in their own name and obtain a Saudi mobile number linked to that identity.
Saudi Arabia removed one of the obvious practical obstacles in July 2026, when the Saudi Central Bank updated its account-opening rules specifically to let non-residents covered by the new property law open Saudi bank accounts for real-estate ownership. The requirements include the Saudi digital identity, identity documents, overseas address and bank information, plus a Saudi phone number linked to the digital identity.
REGA says the overseas process begins through Saudi diplomatic missions for issuance of the digital identity. Once that is in place, the buyer can continue through Saudi Properties.
Where can foreigners actually buy property in Riyadh?
Foreign non-residents currently get access to a specific collection of Riyadh developments rather than the whole city.
REGA's approved Riyadh areas include Qiddiya, New Murabba, Sports Boulevard and the Arts District, Diriyah Gate, King Salman Park, SEDRA, King Abdullah Financial District, King Salman International Airport and a transit-oriented development site.
The pattern is pretty clear. Much of the initial foreign-access market sits inside major new master developments, giga-projects or strategically important districts. SEDRA provides a more conventional large-scale residential example, while KAFD already has a substantial built environment. New Murabba, Qiddiya, Diriyah and King Salman Park carry much more development-cycle exposure.
The official Saudi Properties map remains more important than any list reproduced online. The framework allows Saudi authorities to define the exact geographical boundary, permitted ownership share, type of real-estate right and any other controls for each area.
A foreign buyer should therefore check the exact property on the official map. No shortcut here.
| Approved Riyadh area | What it broadly represents | What a foreign buyer is really buying into |
|---|---|---|
| Qiddiya | Entertainment, sports and mixed-use giga-project | A long development cycle tied to a huge master plan |
| New Murabba | New urban centre around the Mukaab | Primarily new-build and future-city exposure |
| Diriyah Gate | Heritage-led luxury and mixed-use development | High-end master-planned property |
| King Salman Park | Major central urban redevelopment | New supply around one of Riyadh's flagship projects |
| SEDRA | Large ROSHN residential community | One of the clearer mainstream housing options |
| KAFD | Financial and mixed-use district | A comparatively mature premium urban market |
| King Salman International Airport area | Airport-led expansion zone | Long-term infrastructure-driven development |
| Sports Boulevard / Arts District | Large urban regeneration corridor | Location-specific new development |
| Transit-oriented development site | Development around transport infrastructure | A targeted, infrastructure-led ownership area |
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Can foreigners buy in normal Riyadh neighborhoods such as Al Yasmin or Al Sahafah?
A foreign non-resident should not assume that a normal apartment or villa anywhere in Riyadh has suddenly become purchasable.
The new rules are much narrower than the headline suggests. Riyadh's approved geographical scopes contain selected developments, while large parts of the existing housing market remain outside the standard non-resident route.
That affects how we use Riyadh property-price data. Knight Frank calculated an average apartment value of roughly SAR 6,250 per square metre across Riyadh in 2025, while Al Taawun reached around SAR 9,385 and As Sahafah about SAR 9,000. Those numbers tell us something useful about Riyadh pricing, but they do not tell an overseas buyer that a random resale apartment in those neighborhoods is legally available to them.
There is one major exception for foreigners who already live legally in Saudi Arabia.
Can an expat living in Riyadh buy a home outside the foreign-ownership zones?
Yes, a foreigner who legally resides in Saudi Arabia can currently own one Riyadh property outside the designated zones when that property is used as their home.
Article 2 of the new law creates this separate right for legally resident foreign individuals. Riyadh qualifies because the exception only excludes Makkah and Madinah.
For someone with an Iqama, that changes the property search quite a bit. An expatriate family wanting a home in an established Riyadh neighborhood does not necessarily have to choose SEDRA, KAFD or one of the other foreign-investment zones.
There is a family restriction worth knowing. The implementing regulations treat the non-Saudi owner's spouse and non-Saudi descendants as dependants for this personal-residence provision. The family cannot simply multiply the one-home allowance by putting a separate property in every family member's name. A descendant becomes independently eligible under this provision when reaching 25, while the spouse becomes independent if the marriage ends.
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Can foreigners buy Riyadh property purely as an investment?
Yes, foreign buyers can own Riyadh property for investment inside the designated geographical zones; they do not have to live in the unit themselves.
The new ownership system was designed for international investment as well as expatriate homeownership. REGA openly describes the regime as a way to attract foreign investors and international developers into Saudi residential, commercial, industrial and tourism real estate.
The restriction to personal use appears in a different part of the law. It applies to the special right that lets a legally resident foreign individual buy one home outside the approved geographical areas.
An overseas investor can therefore buy eligible investment property inside a Riyadh foreign-ownership zone, while the outside-zone exception for expatriate residents is tied to their own home.
Can foreigners buy apartments, villas and off-plan property in Riyadh?
Yes, the Riyadh foreign-ownership system can cover apartments, villas and off-plan units, provided the particular property and ownership right fall within the approved rules.
Saudi law does not reduce foreign ownership to one specific housing format. The framework covers real estate ownership and other real rights, while Saudi Arabia separately regulates off-plan development and sales.
A buyer still needs to look beyond the word "freehold" in a brochure. The geographical framework can specify what type of real right foreigners may acquire in a particular location, including ownership or usufruct rights and, where relevant, the maximum period attached to a usufruct.
The strongest legal checkpoint comes when the real right is registered. The new law says a non-Saudi's ownership or other real right becomes valid upon registration with the Real Estate Registry.
For off-plan property, we would also check the project's regulatory status, developer authorization and payment arrangements before paying a reservation deposit.
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Does buying Riyadh property give a foreigner Saudi residency?
No, buying an ordinary Riyadh property does not automatically give the foreign owner the right to live in Saudi Arabia.
The new property law is unusually clear on this point. Foreign ownership does not create additional privileges beyond the rights attached to the property itself.
Saudi Arabia does have a separate Real Estate Owner Premium Residency product, and that is where the confusion often starts.
The Premium Residency Center currently sets a SAR 4 million qualifying property value for the real-estate residency route. Different conditions apply depending on whether the property is completed or off-plan. The off-plan route currently requires at least SAR 1 million or 10% of the property value to have been paid, whichever is higher, and the developer must be approved by REGA. The Premium Residency Center also says the off-plan unit cannot be purchased using real-estate financing or be mortgaged.
A foreigner can therefore own an eligible Riyadh property without receiving residency automatically. A qualifying property can separately support a Premium Residency application.
| Situation | Can the foreigner own? | Does the purchase itself give residency? | Relevant route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eligible Riyadh property below SAR 4m | Yes | No | Ordinary foreign ownership |
| Eligible Riyadh property worth SAR 4m+ | Yes | No automatic residency | Buyer may separately qualify for Real Estate Owner Premium Residency |
| Qualifying completed SAR 4m+ residential property | Yes | Potential Premium Residency route | Separate application and conditions |
| Qualifying off-plan SAR 4m+ unit | Yes | Potential Premium Residency route | Additional payment, developer and financing rules |
Can foreigners actually finance and complete a Riyadh purchase from abroad?
Yes, the process is now practical enough to use, although getting a mortgage is much easier for some foreign residents than for overseas buyers.
Al Rajhi Bank currently advertises a dedicated Expat Home Finance product for customers holding Premium Residency or ordinary Iqama. Financing can reach SAR 5 million with a term of up to 20 years. The bank says ordinary Iqama holders require Ministry of Interior approval under the product.
Mortgage policies still vary considerably between banks, nationalities, employers, incomes and residency categories. A non-resident living abroad faces a very different credit assessment from an expatriate with a long Saudi employment record and salary paid locally.
For overseas buyers, REGA runs the Saudi Properties portal specifically for the new ownership system. Non-residents need an approved Saudi digital identity, Saudi mobile number and Saudi bank account before completing the transaction.
The Saudi Central Bank's recent account-opening change removed a major practical barrier by allowing qualifying overseas property buyers to open that local account. It does not, however, require Saudi banks to offer those buyers mortgage finance.
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How much extra does a foreign buyer pay when buying in Riyadh?
The main Saudi real-estate transaction tax remains 5%, while the new foreign-ownership regulations add a separate 2% fee when a non-Saudi disposes of a real-estate right in Riyadh.
The two percentages are often combined too casually.
ZATCA's current Real Estate Transaction Tax law imposes a 5% tax on real-estate transactions, subject to the exemptions and detailed rules in the legislation. On a SAR 2 million transaction, 5% is SAR 100,000. At SAR 4 million, it is SAR 200,000.
The new non-Saudi ownership regulations then introduce another fee. REGA's Article 9 sets the Riyadh rate at 2% of the value when a non-Saudi disposes of real-estate rights. The same 2% applies in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah under the table in the implementing regulations.
We should not describe that 2% fee as an automatic extra acquisition tax paid by every foreign buyer. It concerns the non-Saudi's disposal of the right, so it becomes particularly relevant when modelling a future sale.
At a SAR 4 million resale value, 2% represents SAR 80,000.
| Property value | 5% RETT on a taxable transaction | 2% foreign disposal fee at same value | 2% fee in SAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAR 1m | SAR 50,000 | 2% | SAR 20,000 |
| SAR 2m | SAR 100,000 | 2% | SAR 40,000 |
| SAR 4m | SAR 200,000 | 2% | SAR 80,000 |
| SAR 6m | SAR 300,000 | 2% | SAR 120,000 |
Can foreigners sell their Riyadh property later?
Yes, foreigners can legally resell Riyadh property, although we still have much less evidence about resale liquidity than about the right to buy.
The law explicitly regulates the disposal of real-estate rights by non-Saudis, and the 2% Riyadh disposal fee would make little sense if foreign owners were trapped indefinitely in their properties.
The more interesting issue now is who will buy the property when an investor wants out.
Some approved areas, such as KAFD, already have a functioning built environment. Others are huge projects whose future residential markets are only starting to develop. A buyer entering New Murabba, Qiddiya or parts of Diriyah is accepting more uncertainty about future competing supply, delivery schedules and secondary-market depth.
Foreign ownership itself is also very new. We do not yet have years of evidence showing how quickly internationally owned units resell or how deep the overseas buyer pool becomes in each project.
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Is Riyadh property still rising in price?
Riyadh prices remained surprisingly firm through 2025 even as the number of homes changing hands collapsed. The market was dealing with an affordability problem, not effortless demand growth.
Knight Frank counted 30,408 Riyadh residential transactions in 2025, down from 67,520 in 2024. That is a 55% fall in one year. Transaction value dropped 48% to SAR 42 billion.
Prices moved in the opposite direction. Knight Frank calculated that average apartment values rose 10.5% during 2025 to roughly SAR 6,250 per square metre, while average villa values increased 6.5% to approximately SAR 5,525.
Some established districts ran much hotter. Al Taawun apartment prices rose 24% to about SAR 9,385 per square metre, while As Sahafah climbed 22% to around SAR 9,000.
That combination is unusual. Riyadh lost more than half its residential transaction volume while prices still increased. Buyers were clearly becoming less willing or less able to transact at prevailing prices, but sellers had not yet repriced enough to produce a broad fall.
Government intervention reinforces that interpretation. Higher White Land Tax rates and the Tawazoun initiative, which released residential land in northern Riyadh at SAR 1,500 per square metre, are aimed at improving supply and affordability.
| Riyadh residential indicator | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential transactions | 67,520 | 30,408 | -55% |
| Transaction value | About SAR 81bn implied by decline | SAR 42bn | -48% |
| Average apartment value | About SAR 5,656/sqm implied | SAR 6,250/sqm | +10.5% |
| Average villa value | About SAR 5,188/sqm implied | SAR 5,525/sqm | +6.5% |
Could Riyadh's huge new housing pipeline push prices down?
Riyadh now has enough residential supply coming that buyers should take future competition seriously, especially in new-build districts.
Knight Frank estimates that roughly 346,700 residential units are planned or expected to complete between 2026 and 2028. If delivered broadly as expected, Riyadh's housing stock would move beyond 2.9 million homes.
That pipeline is more than eleven times the 30,408 residential transactions recorded in Riyadh during 2025. The comparison is imperfect because planned completions span several years and total stock serves renters as well as buyers, but the order of magnitude is useful. Riyadh is trying to add housing at a very large scale.
The supply story also reaches beyond private development. National Housing Company has been delivering large residential communities, while the government is trying to bring more land into the market and reduce some of the pressure created by high land prices.
Foreign ownership adds a new source of demand at almost the same time.
We still do not know how those forces will balance. Strong population growth, business relocation, government investment and international demand can absorb a lot of housing. Equally, investors buying early phases of large master developments need to remember that today's developer may release thousands of competing units later.
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Has the new foreign-ownership law already pushed Riyadh prices higher?
There is currently no solid evidence that foreign buyers caused Riyadh's recent residential price surge, because most of that increase happened before foreigners had a fully operational ownership map.
The timeline makes a strong causal claim difficult.
Riyadh apartment prices rose 10.5% during 2025. At the same time, residential transactions were already collapsing. The updated foreign-ownership law only entered into force in early 2026, and the Council of Ministers did not approve the detailed geographical zones until June 2026.
Foreign demand may well affect selected projects from here. Developers in SEDRA, Diriyah, KAFD, New Murabba and other eligible zones now have access to a buyer base that was previously much harder to reach.
There are already signs of international interest in Saudi residential property. Knight Frank's 2026 research identified around US$1.5 billion in surveyed private international capital targeting Saudi residential property, alongside roughly US$3.4 billion of interest in branded residences. Those figures cover Saudi Arabia more broadly and represent intentions rather than completed Riyadh purchases.
For now, we need more completed transactions before claiming that foreign buyers themselves are moving city-wide prices.
Why did Saudi Arabia open only selected parts of Riyadh to foreign buyers?
The geography suggests Saudi Arabia wants international property investment to flow heavily into major new developments while keeping tighter control over the existing Riyadh housing market.
The approved areas make that fairly obvious. Qiddiya, New Murabba, Diriyah Gate, King Salman Park, SEDRA, KAFD, the airport area and the Sports Boulevard are closely tied to large-scale urban development.
Giving those projects access to international buyers expands the pool of capital available to developers and creates a more global residential market around Vision 2030 projects.
At the same time, the government has been trying to improve housing affordability for Saudis. Riyadh transaction volumes fell sharply in 2025, land prices became politically important enough to prompt government intervention, and large volumes of new housing are being planned.
The current system gives the government considerable control. Authorities can choose the location, percentage of foreign ownership, type of real right, usufruct duration and additional conditions.
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How safe is the legal title for a foreign property owner in Riyadh?
Foreign Riyadh ownership now sits inside Saudi Arabia's formal property-registration system, which gives the new regime much more substance than a developer promise or special investor permit.
The law says ownership or another real right acquired by a non-Saudi becomes valid once it is registered with the Real Estate Registry.
REGA's Saudi Properties portal is connected to that registration system, and the implementing regulations require ownership and disposal applications to pass through the electronic portal. Financial transactions must also use approved electronic payment channels.
Saudi authorities have paired those rights with fairly aggressive enforcement. A foreign buyer who deliberately submits false or misleading information that enables an unlawful acquisition can face a fine equal to 5% of the relevant real-estate right, capped at SAR 10 million, as well as the forced sale of that right.
That does not protect an investor from overpaying, construction delays, service charges or weak resale demand. Those remain commercial risks.
| What needs checking | Why we would check it |
|---|---|
| Exact Saudi Properties map location | Confirms that the parcel is actually eligible for the buyer's category |
| Type of right offered | Establishes whether the buyer receives ownership, usufruct or another permitted real right |
| Real Estate Registry status | Determines how the final right is formally registered |
| Developer and project authorization | Especially important for off-plan purchases |
| Payment route | Regulations require relevant payments through approved electronic channels |
| Sale and exit costs | RETT, the 2% non-Saudi disposal fee where applicable, brokerage and other costs can materially change returns |
Can foreigners buy property in Riyadh now — what's the final answer?
Yes. Foreigners can buy Riyadh property now, including people living outside Saudi Arabia, and the reform has moved far enough that we should treat foreign ownership as an operating market rather than a future promise.
The strongest evidence is the combination of changes that happened within 2026. The law is active. Riyadh's foreign-ownership areas have been approved. REGA's Saudi Properties platform handles applications. The implementing regulations spell out how non-residents can buy. The Saudi Central Bank has even updated banking rules so overseas buyers can open the accounts required for a property purchase.
A foreign non-resident normally needs to buy inside an approved Riyadh area such as SEDRA, KAFD, Diriyah Gate, New Murabba or the other designated zones. A foreigner legally living in Saudi Arabia can go further and own one home for personal use outside those areas.
Riyadh therefore sits somewhere between the old closed Saudi model and a broadly open international market such as Dubai. Foreign ownership is real, direct and currently usable, while access remains tightly mapped and controlled.
For someone asking the naive question — "Can I, as a foreigner, actually buy a Riyadh apartment or villa today?" — our answer is firmly yes.
The next question has to be: where exactly?
Buying real estate in Riyadh can be risky
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OUR METHODOLOGY
“Can foreigners really buy property in Riyadh now?” sounds like a simple yes-or-no question. In practice, the answer sits across several moving parts: legal rights, geographical restrictions, transaction infrastructure, banking, residency rules and the state of the Riyadh property market.
We broke the question into the points that determine whether foreign ownership is actually usable: who can buy, where they can buy, whether a non-resident can complete the process from abroad, what rights are registered, how residency interacts with ownership, what taxes and disposal fees apply, and what the current Riyadh market looks like once prices, volumes and future supply are considered together.
We gave the greatest weight to primary Saudi sources for questions of law and execution. The core legal sources were REGA's non-Saudi ownership framework, the Official Gazette publication of the law and implementing regulations, the Saudi Properties ownership-zone map, and REGA's January 2026 notice confirming that the system had entered into force. We also used the Saudi Press Agency's June 2026 Cabinet notice for approval of the geographical scopes and final implementing rules.
For practical execution, we relied on the Saudi Central Bank's July 2026 account-opening update for non-resident property buyers, the Real Estate Registry for title registration, REGA's off-plan framework for developer and project controls, ZATCA for the 5% Real Estate Transaction Tax, and the Premium Residency Center for the separate SAR 4 million Real Estate Owner Premium Residency route.
We treated different types of evidence differently. A binding regulation carries more weight than a market expectation. A completed transaction is stronger evidence of demand than stated investor interest. A development pipeline helps us understand future supply, but it is not a forecast that every planned unit will be delivered on time or compete for exactly the same buyer.
For the market side, we used Knight Frank's 2026 Saudi research for Riyadh transaction volumes, transaction values, apartment and villa prices, future residential supply and surveyed international capital. We used first-hand project sources from ROSHN, KAFD, Qiddiya, New Murabba, Diriyah, King Salman Park and Sports Boulevard to understand what the approved foreign-access areas actually represent on the ground.
Timing was especially important. Riyadh prices rose sharply during 2025, before the foreign-ownership framework was fully operational and before the detailed geographical scopes were approved in June 2026. We therefore do not attribute the earlier city-wide price increase to foreign buyers simply because foreign ownership is now allowed.
Key sources include: REGA on the Law of Real Estate Ownership and Investment by Non-Saudis, Umm Al-Qura's publication of the law, the implementing regulations, REGA's non-Saudi ownership portal overview, the official Saudi Properties geographical-zone map, REGA's January 2026 entry-into-force notice, the Saudi Press Agency on the June 2026 Cabinet approval, the Saudi Central Bank's non-resident account-opening update, the Real Estate Registry, REGA's off-plan sales and lease framework, the Premium Residency Center's Real Estate Owner Residency rules, ZATCA's Real Estate Transaction Tax framework, Al Rajhi Bank's Expat Home Finance product, and Knight Frank's Destination Saudi 2026 report.
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