Saudi Arabia’s Real Estate market sees a decline during 2023.

• Residential transactions saw a 16% drop from last year in Riyadh and Jeddah to under 150,000 sales.
• The total value of mortgages saw a decline of 36%, reaching USD21.3 billion.
• Riyadh retained its home values, with apartment prices even increasing by 4.5% and transaction volume increasing by 7%

Residential transactions (transferal of ownership) in Riyadh and Jeddah, which account for 59% of all real estate deals by value, saw 150,000 sales between January and November of 2023, a 16% decrease.

Saudi Arabia is seeing a nationwide decrease in real estate transactions, the number of transactions dropped by 17% while the total value of transactions dropped by 9% in 2023, amounting to a total value of almost $53 billion.

Faisal Durrani, Partner – Head of Research, MENA, said: “The residential market has experienced phenomenal price growth over the last two to three years, with prices in Riyadh, for instance, continuing to climb into record-high territory. Unsurprisingly, the high home values have contributed to growing affordability issues, which have been further exacerbated by the rising cost of borrowing. Indeed, interest rates have jumped from around 0.8% in January 2021 to 6% at the end of last year”.

The Value of mortgage issues saw a big increase from 2018 to 2021 then started to decline again, going from an all-time high of almost USD37.3 billion to USD21.3 billion.

Real estate prices were retained in Riyadh, unlike the rest of the kingdom, apartment prices increased by 4.5% while villa prices increased by 0.5%.

The number of transactions rose by 7% while other cities saw drops in transactions.

Knight frank:

Knight Frank, which is a global real estate consultancy and real estate agency in London with more than 488 offices stated that the total number of mortgages issued between January to November of 2023 decreased by 35%, which is 13% more than last year.