Every time I visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – as I have done many times over the last two decades – I come away more convinced than before that this is a market of outstanding opportunity. The pace of change is unlike anything I have seen in the other markets in which we operate, which includes the UK, Syria, Australia and the UAE. This is thanks to a government with a genuine long-term vision, a young population with rising aspirations, and a physical transformation of the built environment that is happening at breathtaking speed.
That is why Arada – in the form of a new development company called Arada KSA, established in partnership with a well established Saudi lifestyle company, backed by a SAR50 billion land bank – has entered the Kingdom. Short-term concerns in any market may come and go, but for companies that take a long-term, strategic view, the business case for Saudi Arabia is irrefutable. That is why there are commercial opportunities for developers to come to the Kingdom. But Arada and our Saudi partners have bigger aspirations: not just to build houses but rather to develop thriving and vibrant communities.
The structural opportunity for developers in the Kingdom is significant and well-documented. The gap between housing supply and demand remains one of the widest in the world: the government has set a target of 70% homeownership for Saudi nationals under Vision 2030 (a level that had already reached 66.24% in 2025, ahead of the target set for that year), yet more than 115,000 units need to be delivered annually just to keep pace with demand. Land opportunities around the Kingdom’s major cities are substantial, and a series of regulatory reforms are beginning to reshape the investment landscape in meaningful ways.
The Government has played an important part in creating this opportunity but opening up the ability for foreign ownership to international investors for the first time in January 2026— a reform that took effect on 22 January 2026, opening defined routes for resident and non-resident individuals, companies and non-Saudi entities to own property under the approved rules. Similarly, the white land tax is creating additional incentives for landowners to activate sites rather than hold them idle, with annual charges reaching up to 10% of a plot’s value in the highest-priority areas for development. In addition, the growth of private real estate funds is providing flexible, structured funding mechanisms that did not exist even five years ago. Our view is that 2027 will be a major inflection point for the local property market, as the full effect of recent regulatory reforms begins to trickle through into actual sales and development activity.Indeed, the development of our own first project in the Kingdom — a SAR14 billion residential master plan in Riyadh’s Al Rimal district — is scheduled to begin as early as Q1 2027.
Not everything is straightforward, however. Construction costs are currently high – as they are elsewhere around the world – but in Saudi Arabia this is compounded by the presence of giga projects that absorb significant quantities of both skilled labour and building materials, putting pressure on developer margins in ways that require careful planning. House prices in some parts of the country have risen far faster than incomes, which has suppressed transaction volumes in the near term. The first quarter of 2026 has seen a meaningful drop in sales activity, and any developer entering the market now must be conscious of this backdrop.
But this is not the first time that external events have affected the housing market. Because Arada takes a long-term strategic approach to our investments, that is precisely why we believe this is exactly the right time to come to the Kingdom. While others may hesitate, we are willing to take this step forward. We also know, from the independent research we commissioned, that Saudi Arabia is seen as one of the most attractive international markets for global buyers, with 57% of investors surveyed citing the Kingdom’s easy property purchasing process, with strong potential returns and perception of safety and stability also referenced.
The question is never whether to wait for the perfect moment – which rarely exists – but whether the market fundamentals are strong enough to support a long-term commitment. In Saudi Arabia, they unquestionably are.
But what Saudi Arabia needs, above all else, is not more developers – it is the right kind of developer. There is a specific and growing requirement for large-scale master developers with a proven track record of delivery at scale, and in particular for those with the vertical integration required to create true communities rather than just collections of buildings. The ability to bring construction, hospitality, fitness, wellness, healthcare and retail together under one roof – in other words to create places that people genuinely want to live in, rather than units they merely occupy – is rare. And it is precisely this kind of developer that the Kingdom’s housing ambitions require.
Arada is one of the very few developers in the world that combines premium residential communities with its own hospitality brands, its own fitness network, its own healthcare facilities and its own construction capability. This is the result of a decade of deliberate investment in building an integrated ecosystem that supports the communities we create. That track record now spans a global pipeline valued at SAR189 billion across five markets, a portfolio of more than 70,000 homes, of which 17,500 homes have already been delivered, and shows the scale of experience we are now bringing to developments such as our first master plan in Riyadh.
The fundamentals are compelling: a sizeable gap between supply and demand, significant land opportunities coming to market, a young and rapidly growing population, ambitious government targets, and authorities that are genuinely committed to getting behind the housing sector. Add to that the new foreign ownership framework, the private fund infrastructure and the decade-long pipeline of infrastructure investment, and Saudi Arabia presents, in my view, the most exciting prospect in the world for international developers right now. We are proud to be here, and we are here for the long term.
Source: Saudi Gazette