Saudi to offer foreign home buyers ‘lifetime’ residency

Saudi Arabia will grant “lifetime” residency to foreigners who buy a home there worth at least SAR4 million ($1 million), under new rules allowing full foreign ownership for the first time.

Dar Global CEO Ziad El Chaar, who is familiar with the regulation, said the law will take effect on January 28, granting freehold ownership across approved projects.

“If you buy [a home] for more than SAR4 million, you get a lifetime residency,” the head of the luxury developer told AGBI. 

Residency lasts as long as the owner holds the property, which they do not have to occupy; in Dubai, foreign owners are granted a visa that needs renewing after 10 years. Saudi Arabia already offers some residency options to property owners.

The new details expand on landmark legal changes first announced in July, which will replace previous laws that effectively restricted property ownership to Gulf nationals.

The change is part of Vision 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to attract foreign investment and diversify the economy away from oil.

The government has not yet published the detailed rules.

Housing minister Majed Al-Hogail earlier said ownership will be allowed “within specific geographic areas, particularly in the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah, with special requirements for ownership in Makkah and Madinah”.

Sources told AGBI the much-anticipated property rights will also broaden to giga-projects including Diriyah and Neom, as well as certain areas in Dammam and Al Khobar.

El Chaar said investors are already buying his properties before the law takes effect.

“When the government said they were going to issue a law, we took a chance [and began sales],” he said. 

“We have 30 nationalities who bought from us. First movers will always take a chance.”

Price advantage

Dar Global, the London-listed international arm of Dar Al Arkan, has more than $19 billion of projects under development – among them a $1 billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah, a Trump Tower in Riyadh and branded residences with Lamborghini, Elie Saab and Fendi.

El Chaar did not disclose the value or number of units sold but said most buyers are long-term GCC expatriates familiar with the region – “especially people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria [and] Egypt… because these nationalities have been entrenched in the Gulf for the last 30 years”.

He said those who bought early – mainly off-plan projects launched in December 2024 – have gained a price advantage of about 10 percent.

“Remember, you’re buying off plan. It’s going to take us three years to deliver your property.”

Mohammad Zreik, development manager at business formation company Sovereign PPG in Riyadh, told AGBI that under the residency-by-investment scheme, properties must be completed, mortgage-free and assessed by accredited Saudi valuers. 

Off-plan properties do not currently qualify, but residency is applicable once the property is ready.

El Chaar – a veteran of Dubai real estate and formerly managing director at Damac Properties – compared the moment to the emirate’s early-2000s property boom, when foreigners began buying before freehold laws were in place.