The Ministry of Housing, through the Unregistered Land Fees Program, announced that 200 million square meters of unregistered land subject to fees in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Makkah have not yet been registered in the fee system.

The Ministry explained that part of this land has not yet been registered in the fee system due to various obstacles, foremost among which is the difficulty in identifying the owners of unregistered land, as well as the lack of clarity regarding information on handwritten deeds and ownership shares in joint deeds.

It added that other obstacles include the suspension of deeds for white land subject to the application and the slow pace of procedures to activate the real estate registration system. The Ministry noted that approximately 102 payment orders have been issued for non-compliant lands that were not registered in the system by the specified deadline.

The vacant land fee system came into effect on June 8, 2016, and was implemented in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Makkah. The total number of payment orders in the four cities reached approximately 1,548, covering a total area of 411.46 million square meters, during the first phase of the program to impose fees on vacant land.

The Ministry of Housing has recently issued white land fees for the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam for the year 1439/1440 AH (the second cycle).