Saudi Arabia opens property market to foreigners

• Part of foreign direct investment drive
• Buyers abroad must obtain ID card
• Only Muslims can buy in holy cities

Saudi Arabia has begun accepting applications by non-Saudis to purchase property after the cabinet approved the law and designated geographic areas for ownership.

The decision came days after the US and Iran concluded the first round of peace talks at the Swiss mountain resort of Burgenstock.

In a statement, the Real Estate General Authority (Rega) said non-Saudi individuals residing in the kingdom can apply directly through the Saudi Properties portal using their residency number, subject to completion of regulatory procedures.

Foreigners not in the country must obtain a digital identity card from a Saudi mission abroad before completing the online application.

Non-Saudi companies and entities without an existing presence in the country must register with the investment ministry via the Invest Saudi platform and obtain a national unified number before completing the ownership process electronically.

Property ownership in Mecca and Medina is limited to Saudi companies and Muslim individuals, both within and outside the kingdom.

The Saudi Properties portal, launched in December 2025 at Cityscape Global in Riyadh, is the official channel for foreign real estate ownership applications and for accessing key information on owning property in the kingdom, Rega said.

In December, AGBI reported that Saudi Arabia will grant “lifetime” residency to foreigners who cross a certain threshold when purchasing property.

In the same month, Rega CEO Mohammad Al-Suliman announced that the kingdom would introduce fractional ownership for foreigners looking to buy a stake in Saudi real estate.

He said the move would support Saudi Arabia’s efforts to increase annual foreign direct investment inflows to $100 billion by 2030.

Saudi Arabia’s residential housing market cooled in the first half of this year as a result of the economic fallout from the Iran war, affordability pressures and a drop in mortgage issuances, according to data published earlier this month.

“Predictably, the regional conflict has added to the weight of factors contributing to the slowing in residential sales activity that was evident well before the regional conflict began,” said Faisal Durrani, head of research at Knight Frank Mena in a note accompanying the data.

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As part of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia said it intends for 70 percent of its citizens to be homeowners by the end of the decade. It is currently at 66 percent, up from 47 percent in 2016.

Almost all developed areas of the kingdom are open for foreigners to buy, according to the authority’s geographic scope document. As to be expected, all the giga-projects are there, including The Red Sea, Diriyah, AlUla and Neom — although the last has been mired in delays and scale-backs.

Last month, Red Sea Global told AGBI it had SAR1.8 billion ($480 million) in residential sales and SAR2 billion pending. A spokesperson said foreigners accounted for 20 percent of those transactions.

For the first three months of this year, 38 homes sold in Diriyah, compared with 170 in the same period last year, a 77 percent drop, according to Ministry of Justice data.