The Kingdom’s ranking in the Real Estate Registry category improved by 18 places; it ranked 31st out of 189 countries, up from 49th in 2015; The World Bank attributed this progress to the reforms and development initiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Justice across all judicial sectors, including the notary sector, which is undergoing a qualitative leap in streamlining and reengineering procedures, and leveraging all available modern technologies to facilitate the notarization process.

The Ministry has worked to expedite the transfer of title, streamline the certification process by transferring authority directly from the head of the department to the notary public, and establish electronic links with municipal secretariats; this has led to the streamlining of procedures for amending deeds and other documents, automating company incorporation procedures and establishing electronic links with the Ministry of Commerce at all notary offices across the Kingdom, and making the real estate registration service free of charge. Furthermore, all these procedures take no more than 30 minutes to register a property.

The Ministry revealed that there are several steps for improvement and development, including replacing the endorsement of checks by banks with the “SADAD” service at notary offices; Minister of Justice Dr. Walid Al-Samaani had previously issued several circulars and decisions to evaluate the performance of notary offices and to streamline procedures, with the aim of improving performance, accelerating processing times, and ensuring the smooth operation of notary offices.