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Can I easily resell Saudi property as a foreigner?

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SUMMARY

Yes. A foreigner can legally resell Saudi property today, but whether the resale is actually easy depends much more on the buyer pool, location, price point and exit costs than on the legal right to sell.

The new non-Saudi ownership framework gives foreign owners a formal route to dispose of qualifying property. The legal question is now much clearer than the commercial one: finding a buyer at the price you want can still take time.

Saudi buyers are the biggest advantage for foreign sellers. A resale does not have to depend on another international investor turning up, and domestic mortgage activity gives mainstream homes a far broader exit market than the foreign secondary market alone.

Foreign-ownership zones still matter at resale. A property inside an approved zone can potentially be marketed to Saudis, qualifying residents and qualifying non-residents, while an equivalent property outside those zones can lose part of the international buyer pool.

The foreign resale market itself is still immature. The expanded ownership regime only started operating in 2026, so there is not yet a deep track record of foreign buyers holding Saudi property for several years and then reselling it.

Saudi housing remains highly liquid in absolute terms, with tens of thousands of transactions each quarter, but 2026 activity is still softer than a year earlier. That means there are buyers, though not necessarily for an ambitious asking price.

Affordability is doing more work than property type. Apartments have held up better on national price data, but villas still attract most mortgage value; in practice, a well-priced home that fits Saudi household budgets is likely to resell more easily than a much more expensive unit, whatever the format.

Riyadh and Jeddah both have active resale markets, but they are behaving differently. Riyadh has recovered sharply from its Q1 freeze, while Jeddah has been steadier and has avoided the same price surge, which can help keep ordinary homes within reach of local buyers.

Exit costs are the biggest short-term problem. In Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah, the 5% RETT plus the 2% foreign disposition fee can absorb a large part of a modest capital gain before brokerage, service charges or any negotiated discount are added.

Off-plan property can also be resold through a formal assignment process, but the developer remains part of the transaction and its own unsold inventory may compete directly with the seller. A recognisable developer helps confidence, but it does not create scarcity.

The safest way to approach Saudi resale today is to buy something broad enough for local demand, inside a location with a deep transaction history, at a price that does not rely on another foreign investor paying a launch premium later. For now, the market makes more sense as a multi-year hold than as an easy short-term flip.

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Can a foreigner legally resell Saudi property now?

Yes. A foreign owner can legally resell Saudi property today, provided the property was acquired under the applicable ownership rules and the transfer is properly registered.

Saudi Arabia's updated Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis has been in force since early 2026. Article 9 explicitly regulates the disposal of real-estate rights by non-Saudis, so the framework clearly anticipates foreigners buying property and later selling it.

REGA also ties ownership validity to registration in the Real Estate Registry. When the property changes hands, the new ownership needs to be recorded through that system.

The remaining restriction sits mainly on the buyer's side. A foreign owner may want to sell, but a foreign buyer still has to qualify to own that specific property under the geographic and eligibility rules.

For a seller, that distinction is important. Saudi law now gives foreign owners a normal legal route out of the investment. The harder question is whether enough eligible buyers will want the property at the price we want.

Can a foreign owner sell Saudi property to Saudi buyers?

Yes. Foreign owners can sell Saudi property to Saudi buyers, which gives most resales access to a much larger buyer pool than foreign demand alone would provide.

Saudi buyers remain the backbone of the residential market. According to SAMA, Saudi banks financed about 108,800 new residential mortgage contracts in 2025, worth SAR 80.4 billion. Homeownership among Saudi families had also reached 66.24% by the end of that year.

This means a foreign investor normally does not need to wait for another international investor to appear. If the home appeals to Saudi end users and falls within their budget, local demand can provide the eventual exit.

That is particularly useful today because Saudi Arabia's dedicated foreign secondary market is still very young. Domestic demand has decades of transaction history behind it, while the broader non-Saudi ownership regime only started operating this year.

A property that appeals to both Saudi households and foreign investors should therefore be easier to resell than one designed almost entirely around overseas buyers.

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Does the Saudi foreign-ownership zone affect how easy a property is to resell?

Yes. The foreign-ownership zone can directly affect how many people are legally able to buy the property from you later.

Under the current rules, non-resident foreigners can own qualifying properties inside designated geographic zones. A legally resident foreign individual has an additional route outside those zones for one home used as a residence, except in Makkah and Madinah.

So imagine two similar apartments. One sits inside an approved zone where Saudi buyers, foreign residents and qualifying overseas buyers can all potentially purchase. The other sits outside the zone and was bought by an expatriate under the one-home resident exemption. Both can be sold, but the first property can potentially be marketed to a much broader international audience.

Makkah and Madinah narrow the pool further because foreign individual ownership there is restricted to Muslims.

For anyone thinking about resale before buying, the ownership map belongs next to price, location and expected rent. It can change the future buyer pool quite a lot.

Potential next buyer Property inside an approved foreign zone Property outside an approved zone Effect on resale
Saudi individual Generally eligible Generally eligible Large potential buyer pool
Foreign resident Eligible subject to zone rules May qualify for one residential home More restricted outside zones
Foreign non-resident Can qualify Generally cannot buy Major difference in international liquidity
Muslim foreign buyer in Makkah/Madinah Can qualify in approved zones Restricted Smaller international pool
Non-Muslim foreign buyer in Makkah/Madinah Cannot own as an individual Cannot own Removed from buyer pool

Is there already a big foreign resale market in Saudi Arabia?

No. Saudi Arabia has created the legal foundations for a foreign resale market, but we still have very little evidence showing how liquid that market will become.

The timing explains why. The updated foreign ownership system only came into force in 2026, with the Saudi Properties portal handling applications from residents, non-residents, companies and other qualifying entities.

That means the first large group of buyers under the new system has barely had time to own property, let alone hold it for several years and resell it.

We consequently lack the kind of data that already exists in older international property markets: average days on market for foreign-owned homes, foreign-to-foreign resale volumes, typical negotiation discounts and resale premiums by project.

Interest from overseas investors is clearly real. Knight Frank surveyed wealthy international buyers earlier this year and found that 55% of respondents with personal wealth above US$3 million were prepared to spend more than US$2 million on a Saudi residential purchase. Among Saudi-based expatriates, 36% expected to spend below US$500,000.

Those numbers show demand building at different price points. They still tell us more about interest in buying Saudi property than about how easily today's buyer will exit several years from now.

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How liquid is the Saudi residential market right now?

Saudi residential property is trading in large volumes again, but resale liquidity is still weaker than it was a year ago.

The freshest Knight Frank figures show 45,740 residential transactions in Q2 2026. That was a 9% rebound from Q1, while transaction value increased 6% to SAR 41.9 billion.

The recovery looks less impressive once we compare it with last year. Deal volumes were still 12% lower year on year, and transaction value remained almost 25% lower.

CBRE's separate Q2 dataset points in the same direction. It recorded more than 41,000 residential deals, down 14.2% year on year, while their value fell 26.9% to SAR 37.67 billion.

The exact totals differ because the consultancies use different datasets and classifications, but the direction is the same. Saudi housing activity improved sharply from the weak first quarter, yet buyers are still completing fewer and smaller deals than a year earlier.

So there is liquidity, but not at any price. Tens of thousands of properties change hands every quarter, while an ambitious asking price can still leave a property sitting.

Saudi residential market Latest Q2 reading Change vs Q1 Change vs one year earlier
Knight Frank transaction count 45,740 +9% -12%
Knight Frank transaction value SAR 41.9bn +6% -24.6%
CBRE transaction count More than 41,000 — -14.2%
CBRE transaction value SAR 37.67bn — -26.9%

Are Saudi mortgages helping property resales again?

Yes, lately Saudi mortgage demand has started improving again, although financing is still softer than during the previous boom.

Mortgage availability matters enormously to resale because it determines how many local households can actually complete a purchase.

The market went through a noticeable slowdown. SAMA data show bank mortgage lending falling 12% during 2025 to SAR 80.4 billion, while the number of contracts dropped from roughly 122,300 to 108,800.

Early 2026 remained difficult. Knight Frank calculated that new mortgage contracts during the first four months were 25% lower than a year earlier, while mortgage value was down 34%.

More recent SAMA data are better. Banks issued SAR 5.7 billion of new residential mortgages in June, up 7% year on year and 30% from the previous month. Around 8,800 contracts were signed.

The average loan size was still 10% lower than a year earlier at roughly SAR 645,400. That tells us quite a bit: financing activity has recovered, but buyers are still leaning toward cheaper homes.

For foreign sellers, the safer part of the resale market today is therefore likely to be property priced where a large pool of financed Saudi households can realistically afford it.

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Are apartments easier to resell than villas in Saudi Arabia today?

Affordable apartments currently have a strong resale argument because Saudi buyers are becoming much more sensitive to total purchase price.

GASTAT's Q2 Real Estate Price Index showed apartment values rising 1.1% year on year, while villa values fell 9.7%. Residential land increased 6.3%.

CBRE linked the same pattern to buyers moving toward smaller and cheaper residential products.

Mortgage lending tells us that villas remain a huge market. In June, villas still attracted SAR 3.63 billion of new bank financing, or 63.7% of the monthly total. Apartments received SAR 1.73 billion.

So villas clearly remain mainstream Saudi housing. The resale issue is the ticket price. A property costing SAR 800,000 or SAR 1.2 million simply fits more household budgets than one costing SAR 3 million.

Foreign investors should be careful with the word "apartment," though. A compact SAR 1 million apartment in an established neighbourhood may have broad demand, while a SAR 5 million branded apartment aimed at international investors can have a very narrow secondary audience.

Price point and location usually tell us more about likely liquidity than the label "villa" or "apartment" on its own.

Q2 / recent housing indicator Apartments Villas What it suggests
National annual price change +1.1% -9.7% Cheaper formats held up better
June mortgage value SAR 1.73bn SAR 3.63bn Villas remain a huge financed market
June mortgage share ~30% 63.7% Saudi buyers still finance many villas
Main resale advantage Lower entry price Large domestic family demand Liquidity depends heavily on actual price

Is Riyadh property easy to resell now?

Riyadh resale liquidity has improved dramatically from the start of the year, but sellers still need to be realistic on price.

Riyadh went through an extraordinary freeze in Q1. Knight Frank recorded an 82% year-on-year fall in residential transaction volume and value.

The latest Q2 numbers are far healthier. Riyadh completed 10,667 residential transactions, up 23% from Q1 and only 2% below the same quarter last year.

Buyers have clearly returned.

Prices have also become less one-sided. Average Riyadh apartment values were still 3.1% higher year on year in Q2, reaching about SAR 6,369 per square metre, while villa values fell 2.2%.

That is healthier for resale than a market where prices keep climbing while transactions disappear. It also shows that Riyadh buyers are pushing back more strongly against expensive housing.

REGA's transaction database reinforces how large the underlying market is. Its latest city dashboard shows 13,600 sales transactions worth SAR 29.1 billion in the selected recent period, with highly active districts such as An Nadhim, Al Khayr and Al Janadriyah recording thousands of historical deals.

For mainstream Riyadh housing, finding some buyer is much less worrying than it was earlier in the year. The bigger risk is expecting a resale premium that affordability-conscious buyers refuse to pay.

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Is Jeddah property easier to resell than Riyadh property?

Jeddah currently looks at least as comfortable for ordinary resale liquidity, and its recent transaction numbers have been more stable.

Knight Frank recorded 6,669 Jeddah residential transactions in Q2. That was only 1% lower than a year earlier, compared with the much deeper national decline.

Jeddah also avoided Riyadh's recent price surge. Apartment prices were rising around 2% year on year in Q1, after reaching an average of SAR 4,324 per square metre in Q2 2025. More modest appreciation helps keep homes within reach of local buyers.

The city's secondary market is also spread across many established districts rather than relying entirely on new mega-projects. REGA's real-estate indicators show hundreds of quarterly residential transactions in neighbourhoods such as Al Safa, Al Nuzha, Al Salamah, Al Rawdah, Al Marwah and Al Manar.

Foreign ownership adds another potential layer of demand in the approved areas.

For a normal apartment bought at a sensible price, Jeddah has a useful combination: a large Saudi population, active established districts and a growing international buyer pool. That is a better resale setup than depending on demand for one isolated luxury development.

Are Makkah and Madinah properties harder for foreigners to resell?

Some Makkah and Madinah properties can be harder to resell internationally because foreign individual buyers must be Muslim.

The new foreign-ownership rules allow qualifying Muslim non-Saudis to own inside the approved areas of the two holy cities. Non-Muslim foreign individuals therefore disappear from the potential international buyer pool.

Saudi buyers can still purchase, so the market does not suddenly become tiny. Both cities also benefit from huge pilgrimage economies and major redevelopment programmes.

The key question is what kind of property we own. A reasonably priced home that appeals to Saudi residents can still have broad demand. A premium unit marketed primarily to wealthy international buyers has a more restricted resale audience than an equivalent product in Riyadh or Jeddah.

The transaction cost is also relatively heavy because the additional 2% foreign disposition fee applies in both Makkah and Madinah.

Religious tourism may support the value of prime property, but it does not guarantee a quick residential exit at any asking price.

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How much does it cost a foreigner to resell Saudi property?

Reselling Saudi property can currently eat up a large part of a short-term gain, especially in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah.

Saudi Arabia's Real Estate Transaction Tax, or RETT, is 5% of the property transaction value. Under ZATCA's rules, the seller is responsible for the tax toward the authority, although the commercial agreement can determine who ultimately bears the economic cost.

The new foreign-ownership regulations then add a separate 2% fee when a non-Saudi disposes of property rights in Riyadh, Jeddah Governorate, Makkah or Madinah.

Outside those areas, qualifying foreign dispositions currently receive a 0% rate for that additional REGA fee.

Brokerage can add more. Saudi Arabia's Real Estate Brokerage Law sets the standard sales commission at 2.5%, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. The party that signs the brokerage contract pays it.

Take a SAR 2 million Riyadh property. A 5% RETT equals SAR 100,000 and the 2% foreign disposition fee adds SAR 40,000. If the seller also bears a 2.5% broker commission, another SAR 50,000 disappears.

That gives us SAR 190,000 of possible headline exit costs on a SAR 2 million sale before considering mortgage expenses, maintenance, service charges or the discount needed to secure a fast buyer.

SAR 2m resale example Rate Amount
Real Estate Transaction Tax 5% SAR 100,000
Non-Saudi disposition fee in Riyadh/Jeddah/Makkah/Madinah 2% SAR 40,000
Standard brokerage if borne by seller 2.5% SAR 50,000
Government charges only 7% SAR 140,000
Charges plus standard seller-paid brokerage 9.5% SAR 190,000

How much does Saudi property need to rise before a foreign seller actually makes money?

In the four main cities carrying the extra foreign fee, a property may need roughly 10.5% appreciation just to recover its purchase price after a 9.5% illustrative selling-cost load.

Consider the SAR 2 million Riyadh home again.

If 9.5% of the resale value disappears through RETT, the foreign disposition fee and seller-paid standard brokerage, selling it for SAR 2 million leaves only about SAR 1.81 million before other ownership costs.

To receive SAR 2 million after a 9.5% deduction, the required selling price is roughly SAR 2.21 million.

That works out to approximately 10.5% gross appreciation.

If no brokerage is charged to the seller, the hurdle drops. With the 7% combined government charges alone, the property would need to sell for roughly SAR 2.15 million, about 7.5% above the original SAR 2 million.

Outside the locations subject to the extra 2% foreign disposition fee, the numbers improve again.

The calculation is simplified because actual contracts can allocate RETT and brokerage differently, and specific exemptions may apply. The broader point still holds: a small paper gain can disappear quickly when a foreign investor sells after a short holding period.

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Can I flip an off-plan Saudi property before it is finished?

Yes, Saudi off-plan contracts can be transferred before completion, but the process involves the developer and REGA rather than a simple private resale.

REGA's current procedural manual includes a specific process for changing the buyer or tenant on an off-plan contract.

The developer submits the request. The paperwork includes the contract between the developer and the original buyer, the buyer's consent to assign the contract to another party and the new contract between the developer and the replacement buyer. REGA then updates the project register.

Licensed off-plan projects also operate under a wider regulatory framework covering project registration, escrow accounts, developer qualification and recording of off-plan dispositions.

That gives buyers a formal resale route. It also means investors should read the assignment clauses before purchasing rather than assuming every unit can be flipped instantly.

The developer's own unsold inventory can become the bigger commercial problem. If the developer is still offering new units with attractive payment plans when we try to resell, a private seller may need to compete against the original sales team.

For that reason, off-plan liquidity depends heavily on the project, the contract and how much competing supply remains when we want to exit.

Does buying from a famous Saudi developer make resale easy?

A strong developer can make Saudi property easier to sell, but the unit itself still has to compete with whatever the developer launches next.

Major developers can reduce several fears for the next buyer. A recognised name may improve confidence in construction, maintenance, community management and eventual completion.

The problem appears when the primary market keeps producing substitutes.

Imagine buying a standard two-bedroom unit in a huge master plan. Two years later, the developer may still be selling newer buildings nearby with five-year payment plans, launch incentives or better specifications. A resale buyer will compare our unit directly with those new offers.

In that situation, brand recognition helps but does not create scarcity.

A genuinely unusual unit has a better defence: a strong view, a particularly useful floor plan, a completed building in an already occupied area, a lower original entry price or a location that later phases cannot reproduce.

Saudi Arabia is currently adding an enormous amount of new residential supply through projects led by groups such as National Housing Company, ROSHN and the major giga-project developers. That makes unit selection especially important.

We would pay much more attention to how replaceable the property is than to how impressive the launch marketing looks.

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Does rising Saudi property value mean I will be able to sell quickly?

No. Current Saudi data show clearly that property prices and resale activity can move in very different directions.

GASTAT's latest national index showed residential prices rising 2.6% year on year in Q2. Residential land was up 6.3% and apartments gained 1.1%.

During the same quarter, CBRE recorded a 14.2% annual fall in residential transaction counts and a 26.9% drop in transaction value.

So owners were still seeing relatively resilient valuations while fewer buyers were actually completing transactions.

Riyadh gave us an even more dramatic version earlier in the year, when transaction activity collapsed while apartment and villa values were still rising. Q2 has since brought a major improvement in Riyadh deal volumes, but the earlier episode remains a useful warning about relying on price indices alone.

If an index says a property is worth SAR 2 million, that does not tell us whether a buyer will pay SAR 2 million next week. A seller who wants speed may still need to accept SAR 1.9 million or SAR 1.8 million.

For resale planning, actual transaction activity in the district and property type is more useful than simply looking at headline Saudi price growth.

Will Saudi property become easier for foreigners to resell over the next few years?

Probably. The foreign buyer pool is only beginning to form, and almost every structural change in the new system should make good Saudi properties easier to trade over time.

Foreign residents and qualifying non-residents can now participate through a formal ownership framework. REGA has created the Saudi Properties portal, integrated ownership procedures with registration systems and published clearer rules on who can own where.

Developers and brokers can now market into a much larger international audience with more certainty over the legal process.

International interest is also measurable rather than hypothetical. Knight Frank's 2026 research identified US$6.3 billion of potential private global capital considering Saudi real estate, with Riyadh attracting especially strong attention.

The part we still need to see is repeat trading. Today's international buyers eventually have to become tomorrow's sellers, while a second generation of foreign buyers must be willing to buy those older units instead of always choosing the newest developer launch.

That process normally takes years.

So foreign resale liquidity should improve from today's low base. Which projects develop deep secondary markets first is much harder to call.

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Can I easily resell Saudi property as a foreigner?

Partly. A foreigner can resell Saudi property legally and the buyer pool is becoming much larger, but we would still avoid buying today with the assumption that we can exit quickly whenever we want.

Several things have improved materially.

The legal route is clear. Foreign owners can dispose of qualifying property, Saudi buyers can provide a large domestic exit pool, eligible foreigners can buy inside approved zones, and Q2 transaction activity has rebounded strongly from the weak start to the year.

Riyadh recorded 10,667 residential transactions in the latest quarter and was only 2% below its year-earlier volume. Jeddah was down just 1%. National mortgage lending also returned to annual growth in June. Those are much better liquidity conditions than we had a few months ago.

The remaining weak points are substantial.

The international secondary market has almost no track record under the new ownership rules. National residential transactions are still below last year's level. Buyers have become more price-sensitive. And in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah, the combination of 5% RETT and the 2% foreign disposition fee creates a large exit hurdle before brokerage is even considered.

Property selection consequently makes an enormous difference.

A reasonably priced completed apartment in an established Riyadh or Jeddah area, eligible for a broad range of buyers and bought without an inflated launch premium, should be reasonably resalable today.

A high-priced off-plan unit in a huge development, a niche luxury property or a home whose next foreign buyer faces tighter eligibility rules carries much more exit risk.

Saudi Arabia is becoming a real international residential market very quickly. Its resale market is a few steps behind its primary market.

For now, we would treat Saudi residential property as an investment we should be comfortable holding for several years. If the investment only works because we expect to flip it quickly at a higher price, the resale evidence is still too thin to make that a comfortable assumption.

OUR METHODOLOGY

This analysis tests how realistic it is for a foreign owner to resell Saudi residential property under the ownership regime now in force. We separate the legal ability to dispose of property from the practical question of liquidity, because a property can be legally transferable and still be difficult to sell quickly at the price an owner expects.

We broke the question into the factors that most directly affect an eventual exit: ownership eligibility, geographic zones, the size of the Saudi and foreign buyer pools, residential transaction activity, mortgage availability, affordability, city and property type, resale costs, off-plan assignment rules, and competition from new supply.

We prioritized Saudi primary sources for the rules and hard market mechanics. REGA is the main source for the Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis, the implementing regulations, the Saudi Properties ownership-zone map, the real-estate registration rules, the Real Estate Brokerage Law, and the off-plan procedural manual.

For transaction costs, we use ZATCA's Real Estate Transaction Tax rules for the 5% RETT and REGA's non-Saudi ownership regulations for the additional disposition fee. The resale examples are illustrative because actual contracts can allocate RETT and brokerage differently and specific exemptions may apply.

For financing and national housing conditions, we use the Saudi Central Bank statistical database for mortgage values and contract counts, the GASTAT Real Estate Price Index for Q2 2026 for price changes by housing type, and the Saudi Vision 2030 Annual Report 2025 for the household homeownership rate.

We used REGA's Real Estate Indicators Platform and its Riyadh city dashboard to cross-check actual transaction activity rather than relying only on listing prices or broad market commentary.

For city-level market dynamics and recent transaction trends, we use CBRE's Saudi Arabia Real Estate Market Review, Q2 2026, Knight Frank's Q1 2026 residential research, Knight Frank's Destination Saudi 2026, Knight Frank's 2025 residential market review, and the latest Q2 2026 Knight Frank figures reported by Arab News.

We did not mechanically merge sources that use different market definitions. When Knight Frank and CBRE report different totals, we use them as separate readings and focus on whether the direction is consistent. We also treat international buyer surveys as evidence of purchase interest, not as proof that a deep foreign-to-foreign resale market already exists.

The newest part of the market is the main limitation on certainty. The expanded foreign-ownership system only started operating in 2026, so the best current answer has to combine legal rules with transaction activity, mortgage data, affordability, city-level evidence and investor demand rather than relying on a mature foreign-resale history that does not yet exist.

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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.