Amidst the rapid economic and social transformations underway in Saudi Arabia, the residential rental market is experiencing unprecedented growth. With the increasing number of professionals and expatriates relocating to major cities like Riyadh and Jeddah, a clear gap has emerged between tenant expectations and the reality offered by the market. This article is a constructive call to raise the standards of residential rentals, benefiting both landlords and tenants and enhancing the quality of life in our cities.
The "White" Apartment: The Dilemma of Air Conditioners and Kitchens
Today, it is extremely rare for a tenant in the Saudi market to find an apartment or residential unit for rent that includes air conditioning or a fully equipped kitchen. In reality, tenants often receive completely bare "white walls": no air conditioning, no kitchen cabinets, no water heater, and sometimes not even lighting.
This reality raises fundamental logical and practical questions:
How can a tenant be expected to bear the cost of installing air conditioners and customizing a kitchen for an apartment he does not own?
What will happen to these expensive appliances when the lease ends and the family moves to another apartment that may not fit the dimensions of the old kitchen?
Who bears the cost of repeated demolition and repairs with each new tenant?
The true cost to the tenant
When calculating the actual cost of furnishing an empty apartment with basics in the Saudi market, we find that the tenant bears approximately 25,000 riyals as an initial capital cost, distributed as follows:
When this cost is spread over a typical two-year lease term, the actual monthly cost to the tenant is more than 1,000 riyals above the advertised rent. This means that the "cheap" apartment is not actually cheap when all costs are factored in.
Furnished units and expatriate expectations
With the increasing recruitment of foreign talent under Vision 2030, we must understand the expectations of this important segment. Foreign tenants arriving on employment contracts often expect to find fully furnished (turnkey) housing options, just as they would in their home countries or other global markets.
The gap between expectation and reality
In most developed global markets, expatriates find a wide range of fully furnished apartments ready for immediate occupancy with just one suitcase. However, in the Saudi market, the reality is quite different: foreign tenants are forced to furnish their apartments entirely from scratch, which presents a significant financial and logistical burden, especially for those with short- or medium-term employment contracts (one to three years).
Impact on market attractiveness
This situation negatively impacts the Kingdom's competitiveness in attracting talent compared to Dubai, Singapore, or London, where expatriates can easily find fully furnished housing options. Providing high-quality, fully furnished housing options will enhance the attractiveness of the Saudi real estate market and facilitate the integration of skilled workers, positively impacting the national economy.
Regional best practices: What does “unfurnished” mean?
When looking at neighboring regional markets, we find that the concept of an “unfurnished apartment” differs radically from what is prevalent in the Saudi market.
Dubai Model: The Regional Standard
In Dubai, an unfurnished apartment comes standard with:
Integrated central air conditioning (Central AC)
Kitchen cabinets with built-in sink and oven.
Built-in Wardrobes
Central water heater.
Basic lighting equipment.
A furnished apartment adds to this: complete furniture, large appliances (refrigerator, washing machine), and sometimes kitchenware and curtains. The difference in rent between furnished and unfurnished ranges from 20% to 30%.
Staff rooms and drivers' rooms: impractical designs
One aspect of residential unit design that needs to be reconsidered is the placement of rooms for domestic workers and drivers. Current designs in many projects result in uncomfortable and impractical rooms, negatively impacting the quality of life for all residents.
Staff rooms: Irritating and uncomfortable design
In many current residential designs, the maid's room and bathroom are integrated within the kitchen space. This design presents two major and serious problems:
Firstly, an uncomfortable environment; placing the room within the kitchen area means constant exposure to heat, smells, and noise, making it difficult to relax and affecting the quality of sleep and relaxation.
Secondly, serious health risks. Having a bathroom that opens directly onto a food preparation area poses a significant health risk to all family members.
From a public health and food safety perspective, international standards clearly indicate the dangers of this design:
Cross-contamination: Bacteria are transferred from bathroom surfaces to kitchen surfaces via the air, hands, and shoes.
Sewage gases: When sewer lines are shared or ventilation is poor, harmful gases can leak into the food preparation area.
Humidity and mold growth: Bathroom steam increases humidity in the kitchen area, providing an ideal environment for the growth of mold and fungi.
Office kitchens section as a related topic
This health problem isn't limited to the residential sector. In many office buildings, coffee and food preparation areas (pantry) are designed to be adjacent to restrooms, sometimes even sharing the same wall and opening onto the same narrow corridor. This design is often driven by the desire to reduce plumbing costs and consolidate them into a single "wet zone," but it comes at the expense of users' health and violates basic hygiene standards.
Drivers' rooms: cramped and noisy
Drivers' rooms are often designed on the ground floor or in the basement, and often lack the minimum comfort: insufficient natural ventilation, no sunlight, very cramped space, and sometimes no window at all. This situation makes the room uncomfortable and unsuitable for comfortable use.
The Saudi Building Code (SBC) clearly states specific standards for any habitable room:
Minimum area: 6.5 square meters.
One side of the room is no less than 2.1 meters.
A window is required for ventilation and natural lighting.
The driver's room door and window must open onto the villa's courtyard.
Any discrepancy between reality and the code is often due to developers manipulating and circumventing the systems.
Opportunity for developers
If developers and property owners in Saudi Arabia adopted the "semi-furnished" model (providing only air conditioning and a kitchen), they would achieve multiple gains:
Renting the unit faster and reducing vacancy periods.
Requesting a higher rental value to cover the cost of the equipment within a few years.
Maintaining the integrity of the property's infrastructure from damage caused by continuous dismantling and installation.
The cost of equipping the unit with the basics (approximately 25,000 riyals) can be recovered in just 18 to 24 months through a reasonable monthly rental premium, after which it becomes a net additional return for the owner throughout the useful life of the equipment.
Summary
Elevating the residential rental market doesn't require radical, complex changes, but rather a shift in investment and design mindset. This can be summarized in three pillars:
First, adopt a "semi-furnished" model as a minimum: provide air conditioning, a kitchen, and a water heater as essential components of the rented unit. This protects the property, increases rental yield, and speeds up the rental process.
Secondly, improving the design of domestic staff quarters: creating comfortable rooms of adequate size, separate from the kitchen, and providing ventilation and natural lighting. This meets health and safety standards and enhances the overall quality of the property.
Third, developing the fully furnished units segment: to meet the growing demand from foreign professionals and independent young Saudis, thereby enhancing the market's regional competitiveness.
We have a golden opportunity to adopt the best regional and international practices, and to offer a real estate product that lives up to the aspirations of Vision 2030, and achieves the ideal balance between the developer’s return on investment, the tenant’s comfort and quality of life for all residents of the unit.
