Companies accounted for 35% of the 259,311 real estate deeds registered by notary offices in Saudi Arabia over the past 11 months, at an average of 786 deeds notarized daily.
Ranking of regions by number
The ranking of regions by the number of real estate deeds issued is as follows:
The Riyadh region recorded the highest number with 77,358 real estate deeds issued, accounting for 30.1% of the total.
It was followed by the Makkah region with 46,026 deeds.
Then the Eastern Region with 41,658 deeds.
Notary offices in the Qassim Region recorded 24,041 deeds.
This was followed by the Hail region with 4,190 deeds, then the Asir region with 13,038 deeds.
In the Hail region, 11,009 real estate deeds were registered.
The Jazan region had the lowest number of registered and discharged real estate deeds, with 3,924 deeds.
Meanwhile, the number of real estate deeds registered in the Northern Border region reached 6,655.
This was followed by the Tabuk region with 6,360 deeds.
Property Ownership Inquiry Service
This comes at a time when the Ministry of Justice intends to establish an electronic service to provide information on property “real estate” and their areas through e-services on the Ministry of Justice’s website. In its initial phase, this service will provide data on deeds pertaining solely to corporate properties, which cover an area of up to 1.8 billion square meters.
Increased Transparency Standards
This online service allows users to inquire about real estate ownership using the deed number, plot number, or plan number. The service requires sending a text message to the inquirer’s mobile phone after they register in the database, and the inquiry results will display ownership data for corporate properties.
The Ministry of Justice has made this inquiry service available to the public—both individuals and companies—with the aim of increasing transparency standards in property documentation and providing users with real estate ownership data for companies in the Kingdom.
This service is part of the Ministry of Justice’s initiatives aimed at raising the Kingdom’s ranking in investment competitiveness to achieve leading positions in real estate investment data among other countries, as the information transparency index is among the World Bank’s recommendations for land management systems.
Improving the efficiency of notarization services for individuals and companies
In the same vein, the Ministry of Justice clarified that the “Notary” service will provide 1,509 locations across the Kingdom to offer notarization services, including 398 locations for notaries who have begun receiving clients seeking notarization services. Work has been completed to register 352 notaries on the “Tawthiq” electronic portal after they were granted licenses.
The Ministry of Justice clarified that the service is one of the Ministry’s initiatives under the National Transformation Program 2020, and aims to improve the efficiency of notary services for individuals and companies by involving the private sector, thereby expanding the privatization of judicial services, and supports the national economy in a manner consistent with the objectives of “Saudi Vision 2030.”
The Ministry is currently reviewing applications from 759 new applicants for notary licenses, announcing that it is in the process of launching a training program for 759 of them—including those who do not work in the legal profession but wish to obtain a “notary” license, as well as others who have worked in other professions such as teaching, and job-seeking bachelor’s degree graduates.
Training applicants for notary services
It noted that applicants for whom the training program is currently being launched will be granted notary licenses after passing the training courses and personal interviews, explaining that the “notary” service was launched to achieve the strategic goal of improving the performance of notarial services, noting that the challenges facing notarial services included the unavailability of services outside government working hours, and the private sector’s lack of involvement in providing some notarial services and job opportunities—goals achieved by the newly launched notary service.
The Ministry confirmed that the granting of licenses to notaries is ongoing, indicating that the number of notary offices will continue to increase, adding that the “Notary” service encourages the private sector to contribute to providing some notarial services to reduce the burden on notary offices, and the Ministry continues to grant licenses while ensuring the quality of services provided to beneficiaries by the Ministry’s partners in delivering notarial services.
