‘Real estate market safe and growing’

The head of the real estate committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Khalid Al-Ghamdi said the Kingdom has the largest real estate market in the Middle East.
He told Arab News that the real estate market in the Kingdom is stable, allowing for greater investment opportunities for developers and investors.
The real estate market in the Kingdom is valued at more than SR1.3 trillion, and is expected to reach SR1.5 trillion in the next few years due to high demand from investors seeking a market with high returns.
Al-Ghamdi said that the Saudi market is considered safe for investments, especially as the financial market may decline, often leading to price increases.
Currently, the local market is growing at a rate of between 5 and 7 percent due to high local demand for housing, development, and commercial projects. Estimates confirm that the Kingdom is in need of more than 5 million new housing units across all cities by 2020, thus indicating that the market will witness unprecedented activity due to large scale investments.
The Kingdom is in need of SR640 billion in real estate investments and housing units will account for up to 91 percent of these investments.
Within the Kingdom, Jeddah surpasses other cities in the real estate sector, after Riyadh in the activity of real estate sales and purchases, with real estate activity amounting to SR21.5 million in the past three months.
Real estate activity in the Kingdom is an important factor in the current economic recovery in the Arab region, particularly in the Gulf.
The sector invites not only extensive investment, but also provides stability and consistency to the region's economies.