The real estate market in the Kingdom has exceeded 1.3 trillion riyals, and is expected to reach 1.5 trillion riyals over the next few years, according to Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Ghamdi, Chairman of the Real Estate Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during the first meeting of the Real Estate Committee at the Jeddah Chamber, held yesterday at the Chamber’s headquarters, where he was unanimously nominated as chairman. Abdulaziz Azab and Shurooq Al-Suleiman were appointed vice-chairmen of the Saudi real estate sector. Al-Ghamdi said: «The Kingdom offers numerous investment opportunities for developers and investors in the real estate sector, which is considered the largest real estate market in the Middle East. With strong demand from both consumers and investors seeking a market that yields significant profits and a high level of capital growth,» Al-Ghamdi described the Saudi real estate market as a safe haven for investments, particularly during financial market downturns, a factor that has contributed to significant and sometimes unjustified price increases, noting that the local market’s growth rate stands between 5% and 7%, driven by sustained strong domestic demand for residential projects, an increase in commercial development projects, and growth in the hospitality sector.
Al-Ghamdi stated that the Saudi real estate market continues its recovery amid an economic boom that underscores Saudi Arabia’s development trajectory and financial stability; investment and real estate portfolios in the Kingdom are estimated at approximately 50 billion riyals, while official estimates confirm that the Kingdom needs more than 5 million new residential units across all its cities by 2020, noting that the real estate market will witness unprecedented activity in terms of investment volume; the Kingdom’s need for real estate investments is estimated at $640 billion, with residential units accounting for 91.1% of future real estate investments.
Al-Ghamdi emphasized that the Real Estate Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, under the guidance of the Chamber’s Chairman, will keep pace with the boom currently being experienced by the Saudi economy, thereby enabling the Kingdom’s real estate market to achieve a qualitative leap and significant growth; as real estate projects under construction in Jeddah this year amount to no less than 200 billion riyals, given the real estate market’s remarkable growth over the next few years, He noted the committee’s determination—which includes a select group of experts in the real estate sector—to develop real estate services and elevate the sector in Jeddah to the level of global markets, improve the real estate investment environment, building strategic partnerships to support the sector and develop human resources, as well as instilling professional ethics among those interested in investing in this sector.
Al-Ghamdi highlighted the significant real estate growth witnessed by the “Bride of the Red Sea” through various projects, such as the expansion of high-rise construction, land planning, the proliferation of residential complexes, and real estate transactions among industry professionals. He noted the Chamber’s efforts and those of relevant authorities to professionally train workers in the field through systematic and scientific methods, as well as holding seminars on real estate and investment to educate workers in this sector, regulating real estate and construction activities and those involved in them, working to classify real estate offices according to the volume of their business and the services they provide, and finding appropriate solutions to real estate issues.
He noted that Jeddah leads the Kingdom’s cities in the real estate sector after Riyadh, with sales and purchases reaching 21.5 billion riyals over the past three months according to official statistics, which indicates the growing size of the real estate market in the Kingdom in general and in Jeddah in particular. He noted that real estate activity in the Kingdom is a key factor in the economic recovery currently underway across the Arab region, and in particular the Arabian Gulf region, which has also become—as he says—one of the largest regions attracting real estate investment due to the stability the region enjoys. The real estate investment trends observed in the Kingdom are considered a positive indicator paving the way for an active real estate investment future that contributes to a genuine recovery of the Saudi economy.