Suddenly Saudi investors are discovering that owning an apartment or villa is a lot more expensive than they expected, with Riyadh home prices rising at their fastest in five years. Knight Frank data shows Riyadh apartment prices are up 20 per cent and villa prices are up 18.6 per cent from a year ago. There is a good chance that these price gains won't stop here.
There has been a decrease of 27 percent in residential transactions in Riyadh over the last year, indicating that potential homeowners are backing out. According to Faisal Durrani, Partner - Head of Middle East Research at Knight Frank, the UK consultancy, government programs to boost home ownership have boosted demand, development activity, and house prices in Saudi Arabia.
However, despite the significant decline in volumes, the value of the deals only fell by 2 per cent to SR40.4 billion, reflecting stellar price growth in all segments of the residential sector.
