Saudi youth drives new wave of Riyadh business parks

RIYADH: Savills, the leading global real estate services provider, released its latest Saudi Arabia market report analyzing the rise of business parks in Riyadh.

The report sheds light on the growing demand for office space in the capital and the introduction of business parks to meet the requirements of businesses. 

David O’Hara, head of Savills’ Saudi Arabia branch, said: “The concept of office space has undergone significant changes over the past few years. It has evolved from the ‘cubical’ setup in the nineties to ‘open plan’ desk space in the twenties and to ‘flexible’ and ‘co-working’ spaces today. This evolution has been driven by both changing business requirements as well as evolving employment needs.

“The Kingdom has been witnessing major changes over the past few years. With close to 40 percent of the country’s population between the age of 20-40 years, it’s imperative to incorporate their requirements while building. Riyadh is transforming smartly, hence the importance of introducing the concept of business parks to meet evolving and new business needs while attracting and retaining talent.”  

Riyadh is the largest city for corporate expansion in the Kingdom. According to Savills, the rise of business parks is likely to attract new and various business sectors in the next three years, such as in fintech, education, health care, entertainment, defense, transportation, consultancy and others related to Vision 2030. 

O’Hara said: “From a property management and facility management point of view, the entry of global companies and introduction of investment grade supply will necessitate the services of professional companies to manage assets. This is important as it offers a competitive advantage and helps maintaining the quality and service offering of the asset relevant to the changing market requirements. For the moment, most of the developers prefer to carry out these services in-house but we expect this to change over the next few years.”