The weekly activity of the local real estate market declined slightly by no more than 2.7 percent, to stabilize the total value of real estate transactions at the end of last week at less than 3.5 billion riyals, mainly due to the decline in the value of transactions in the residential sector, which recorded a weekly decline of 12.5 percent, which stabilized at less than 2.0 billion riyals (57.2 percent of the total weekly transaction value of the real estate market), and the value of the agricultural and industrial sectors decreased for the third consecutive week by 1.1 percent, stabilizing at 266 million riyals (7.7 percent of the total weekly transaction value of the real estate market). In contrast, the value of real estate transactions for the commercial sector increased by 18.5 percent and stabilized at the end of the week at SAR 1.2 billion (35.1 percent of the total weekly transaction value of the real estate market).
The value of real estate transactions for the commercial sector increased by 18.5 percent and stabilized at the end of the week at SAR 1.2 billion.
Other weekly performance indicators of the real estate market
At the level of other indicators of the weekly performance of the local real estate market, the number of real estate transactions recorded a weekly decline of 14.2 percent, to stabilize the number of transactions by the end of the week at above the level of 4.3 thousand real estate transactions, and the decline included all market sectors, with a decrease in the number of transactions in the residential sector by 16.3 percent, the commercial sector by 6.6 percent, and the agricultural and industrial sectors by 6.3 percent.
At the level of the number of properties sold, it recorded a weekly decline of 15.9 percent, to stabilize by the end of the week at less than 4.6 thousand properties sold, and the decline included all the main sectors of the market, where the number of properties sold for the residential sector recorded a decline of 19.2 percent, the commercial sector by a decline of 2.1 percent, and the agricultural and industrial sectors by a decline of 5.5 percent. As for the total area of real estate transactions executed during the past week, it recorded a weekly increase of 16.2 percent, to settle at 159.4 million square meters, mainly due to the increase in the areas of transactions executed for the agricultural and industrial sectors by a record 19.6 percent, while the areas of transactions executed for the residential sector decreased by a record 50.1 percent, and also decreased for the commercial sector by a record 34.6 percent.
With regard to the total area of real estate transactions executed during the past week.
Residential Paid Rent Index
The latest performance of the Residential Paid Rent Index (RPI) issued by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) until the end of last August showed its annual decline for the 55th consecutive month by 4.2 percent, bringing the total decline in the RPI since it started declining in February 2017 through the end of August to 18.4 percent. Although the total RPI decline during the period reached that percentage of decline (annual average of -4.8 percent), the rate of decline is not comparable to the record high of 109.0 percent (annual average of 6.9 percent) recorded during the period 2006-2016.
The decline in housing rents is expected to continue based on the continued pace of households moving from their previously rented homes to their new homes, which they owned at accelerated rates during the period, which is expected to continue at its current pace to contribute to further successive pressures on the market prices of various real estate assets, especially after the wave of record highs witnessed since the beginning of 2019 to date, benefiting greatly from the unprecedented increase in new mortgage loans granted to individuals, which exceeded SR 308 billion in just two and a half years, which began since the beginning of 2019 last year of this year.
Annual change of average prices of some construction materials for all cities
The latest report on the average prices of goods and services issued by the General Authority for Statistics until the end of last August showed that most of the average prices of construction materials included in the report recorded an annual increase with the exception of cement, which recorded an annual decrease of 2.2 percent, stabilized by the end of last August at an average price of 13.92 riyals per bag (50 kilos). The annual rates of increase for the rest of the construction materials were as follows: The average price of cables rose 30.3 percent, stabilizing by the end of last month at an average price of 45.68 riyals per linear meter, followed by the average price of iron 24.4 percent, stabilizing at an average price of 3,670 riyals per ton, and came third in terms of the percentage of increase in the average price of wood 9.0 percent, stable at an average price of 3,280.12 riyals per cubic meter, and finally in fourth place is the average price of ready-mix concrete with an annual increase of 2.5 percent, stable at an average price of 207.20 riyals per cubic meter.
As for the change in the average prices of construction materials during the first eight months of this year, compared to the same period last year, all of them recorded an annual increase without exception, the first place among them was the average price of iron with an annual increase of 31.1 percent, followed by the average price of cables with an annual increase of 29.The average price of timber ranked third with an annual increase of 15.5 percent, the average price of ready-mixed concrete ranked fourth with an annual increase of 10.3 percent, and finally, the average price of cement ranked fifth with an annual increase of 2.7 percent.
Fifth place was taken by the average price of cement with an annual increase of 2.7 percent.
