Reports show that 18,383 real estate deeds have been consolidated in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the current Hijri year (“260 days”), with investment and commercial properties accounting for approximately 45 percent of these properties, whose owners requested consolidation from the notary offices.
Notary offices in the Riyadh region recorded the highest number of consolidations, with 7,554 real estate deeds, accounting for 41.1 percent, followed by the Makkah region with 3,951 deeds, then the Eastern Province with 2,980 deeds, while notary offices in the Qassim region recorded the consolidation of 1,428 deeds, followed by the Madinah region with 767 deeds, since the beginning of the current Hijri year.
This comes as the Ministry of Justice announced that it had processed more than 300,000 real estate transfers through the Notary Public Service in 2021, in addition to issuing 70,000 powers of attorney. Last year saw the launch of the new "Notary Service" brand, the introduction of an electronic payment service, and the launch of a service for acknowledging receipt of funds.
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that the Notary Service—provided by approximately 2,000 notaries across the Kingdom—can be accessed by visiting the Notary Service website, and contacting the nearest licensed notary using their contact information, without the need to visit a notary office, or through the Notary smartphone app for both Android and iOS, which also allows individuals and businesses to complete many notary services without visiting an office, for the convenience of users and in support of the notary sector, by submitting a service request and receiving quotes from notaries available on the app anytime, anywhere.
It is worth noting that the Notary service offers a wide range of notarial services, including the issuance or revocation of powers of attorney and the notarization of corporate contracts, in addition to the notarization of real estate transfers and mortgage services—which include property mortgaging, mortgage release, property transfer with a mortgage in place, deed correction, and financial declaration services—which include debt acknowledgment, debt repayment or waiver declarations, and verification of real estate deeds and powers of attorney.
