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Population Growth Drives Saudi Real Estate Prices to 15th Consecutive Increase

A residential project of the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A residential project of the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Population Growth Drives Saudi Real Estate Prices to 15th Consecutive Increase

A residential project of the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A residential project of the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Real estate prices in Saudi Arabia have continued their upward trajectory for the fifteenth consecutive quarter since early 2021. In the third quarter of this year, data shows a 2.6% year-on-year increase, driven by a 1.6% rise in residential property prices and a 6.4% increase in commercial properties, while agricultural land prices declined by 8.7%.
According to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Riyadh recorded the highest property price increase among Saudi regions in the third quarter, with a year-on-year rise of 10.2%, followed by Hail at 5%. In contrast, prices fell in nine administrative regions, with Al-Baha experiencing the steepest decline at 14.3%.
These latest figures are based on an updated methodology from the GASTAT, which uses 2023 as the new base year and incorporates a geographic AI model to better capture transaction types. Satellite images are also used to enhance data quality and accuracy. Methodological updates include broader geographic coverage to better represent administrative regions and revised property classifications, which were applied retroactively to data from 2021 onward.
Real estate experts told Asharq Al-Awsat that the steady rise in property prices since early 2021 reflects high demand for residential properties, fueled by sustained growth and government efforts to encourage homeownership under Vision 2030, which aims to increase homeownership rates among Saudi families to 70%.
Real estate expert Saqr Al-Zahrani explained that the price increase reflects rising demand for residential and commercial properties across Saudi cities and provinces, due to ongoing population growth, urban expansion, and more housing projects aimed at meeting high demand. Government efforts to support and expand residential projects have also played a significant role.
Al-Zahrani expects a slight continued increase in residential property prices in the fourth quarter of 2024, especially with the expansion of housing projects aimed at boosting homeownership in most cities. However, he anticipates this growth rate may moderate somewhat in 2025 if new regulatory measures, financing programs, or incentives are introduced to adjust demand.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, real estate expert Al-Aboudi bin Abdullah attributed the 2.6% increase in Saudi real estate prices in the third quarter this year, compared to the same period last year, to two main factors. First, residential property prices rose by 1.6%, driven by heightened developer demand in anticipation of further price increases and market activity, as interest rates are expected to remain low into 2025.
The second factor is the 6.4% rise in commercial property prices, spurred by demand for land and commercial and office projects. This demand aligns with major development projects launched under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

 

 

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Business

Gold Slips Over 2% as Dollar Holds Firm on Fed Rate-hike Expectations

British gold bars and sovereign coins on display in a London shop. (Reuters)
British gold bars and sovereign coins on display in a London shop. (Reuters)
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Gold Slips Over 2% as Dollar Holds Firm on Fed Rate-hike Expectations

British gold bars and sovereign coins on display in a London shop. (Reuters)
British gold bars and sovereign coins on display in a London shop. (Reuters)

Gold prices fell more than 2% on Tuesday, pressured by a firmer US dollar on expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes this year, while investors assessed US-Iran peace talks.

Stocks across the globe declined amid concerns over AI-related share valuations and as higher interest rates loomed. Crude fell 1% while the dollar held near a one-year high, making gold less affordable for buyers holding other currencies.

Spot gold was down 2.2% at $4,099.84 ⁠per ounce, as ⁠of 0753 GMT. US gold futures for August delivery fell 2% to $4,117.70, Reuters reported.

Spot silver slumped 5% to $61.90 per ounce, platinum lost 3% to $1,628.55, and palladium was down 2.9% at $1,229.28.

"Gold had received some relief from lower oil prices this week, but it is getting no such favors from the US dollar, which continues to push higher ⁠on expectations of Fed rate hikes," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Traders now see an 88% chance of a rate hike in December, up from 61% before the Fed meeting last week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, as investors price in hawkish monetary policy under new Chair Kevin Warsh.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said that with the labor market stable, he is focused on figuring out whether too-high inflation will stay that way or recede, as the effects of high tariffs ⁠fade, and ⁠if the conflict in the Middle East gets resolved.

The US has waived sanctions on Iran for 60 days after the first talks under a nascent peace deal, while officials reported a sustained lull in fighting in Lebanon under the agreement aimed at ending hostilities across the region.

US Vice President JD Vance said talks with Iranian officials in Switzerland had laid a good foundation for a final peace deal, although Iran denied that it had begun discussions of its nuclear program.

Investors await US Personal Consumption Expenditures data, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, due on Thursday, for further cues on monetary policy.

Business

EU Bets on Digital Euro to Cut US Tech Addiction

Euro banknotes, Visa and Mastercard cards are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken September 24, 2025. (Reuters)
Euro banknotes, Visa and Mastercard cards are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken September 24, 2025. (Reuters)
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EU Bets on Digital Euro to Cut US Tech Addiction

Euro banknotes, Visa and Mastercard cards are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken September 24, 2025. (Reuters)
Euro banknotes, Visa and Mastercard cards are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken September 24, 2025. (Reuters)

The EU believes a digital euro is the answer to cutting its addiction to US payment systems, like Visa and Mastercard, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay, as the bloc seeks to favor European firms over others.

Brussels hopes it could provide an alternative local option for any payments in shops or online since people could easily pay, just like other systems, using a card, an app or via their banking app.

The European Union will move one step closer on Tuesday to creating a digital euro when EU lawmakers hold a long-awaited vote on the virtual currency.

The European Central Bank first suggested the digital euro in 2020 because Europe lacked its own system before the EU executive made its formal proposal.

The digital euro cannot be created without the rules underpinning the project being approved by the EU capitals and the European Parliament.

What is the digital euro?

Don't confuse it with your cash in the bank. When you use your bank card, Apple or Google Pay, you pay with physical money that exists in your account.

Instead, your digital euros would be in a separate virtual wallet.

The ECB hopes the digital euro will be available to citizens in 2029 if the EU negotiators greenlight the rules by the end of the year.

If that timeline sticks, the ECB is ready to launch a pilot program in mid-2027 to test how it would work in practice.

Some say that is too long, but "banks and merchants need time to prepare so they can roll it out smoothly and at scale", Alessandro Giovannini, advisor to the digital euro director at the ECB told AFP.

How will it work?

Digital euros will have the same value as cash and banknotes.

Any user would need to create an account with a bank or a public institution, like a post office, and transfer money into it from another account or via a cash deposit.

Users can then pay with digital euros in shops, online and between individuals using different methods, including card, app or phone.

Officials stress the system would protect people's privacy, with no possibility to identify who made transactions, and an offline mode that would be as confidential as using cash.

"It wouldn't replace anything. Cash would still be available, and people could use existing private payment methods," the ECB's Giovannini said.

The digital euro would give more choice and let consumers "preserve their freedom to choose how to pay as daily life becomes more digital", he added.

Why does the EU want a digital euro?

Payment systems are "not neutral" but "instruments of power", centrist EU lawmaker Gilles Boyer said in a statement.

"We, Europeans, have had many wake-up calls about our dependence on the US. We're fully awake now, but we're not always acting," he said, adding Tuesday's vote would make "a sovereign, pan-European payment solution a reality".

EU officials often point to Washington's 2025 sanctions against International Criminal Court judges to illustrate the grip of US firms. French judge Nicolas Guillou has described how he lost access to his Visa card.

The digital euro is "a chance to end a dependence we have lived with for too long".

According to the ECB, nearly two-thirds of card payments in the euro area are handled by non-European companies -- mostly Visa and Mastercard.

And 13 out of 21 eurozone countries have no national card scheme for day-to-day payments in shops or online stores.

Who doesn't want it?

Banks. The main reason for their reticence is the cost.

Adapting the banking system to the digital euro will cost 18 billion euros ($20 billion), a report in April by the European Banking Federation said.

But the ECB insists it will cost the banking sector between four and 5.8 billion euros in investment costs.

Banks also fear the effects on their financial stability because if customers convert their money into digital euros, bank deposits would plummet.

The ECB says there is no risk.

"Thanks to its design that prevents large deposit outflows, the digital euro wouldn't cause these risks -- even in extreme and unlikely crisis situations," Giovannini said.

European banks also fear reduced demand for their online services and worry the digital euro is a rival to the pan-European payment system Wero.

Business

Oil Falls 1% as Investors Focus on Hormuz Flows after Peace Talks

FILE PHOTO: Storage tanks and oil refineries in Jurong Island, Singapore, March 24, 2026. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Storage tanks and oil refineries in Jurong Island, Singapore, March 24, 2026. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
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Oil Falls 1% as Investors Focus on Hormuz Flows after Peace Talks

FILE PHOTO: Storage tanks and oil refineries in Jurong Island, Singapore, March 24, 2026. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Storage tanks and oil refineries in Jurong Island, Singapore, March 24, 2026. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Oil prices fell more than 1% on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session, on signs of some progress in restoring crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz following US-Iran peace talks.

Brent crude futures fell $1.09, or 1.4%, to $76.81 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate declined to $72.99 a barrel, down 87 cents, or 1.2%, as of 0607 GMT.

Prices fell more than 3% on Monday after the United States granted Iran a 60-day sanctions waiver following initial peace talks, and as officials reported a ‌lull in hostilities ‌in Lebanon under the broader agreement, Reuters said.

"The gradual increase ‌in ⁠oil flows through ⁠the Strait of Hormuz continues to weigh on the market," said ING analysts in a note.

Two crude tankers with just under 2 million barrels of oil sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, ship-tracking data showed, in a sign that traffic was picking up following weaker flows on Sunday due to concerns over passage through ⁠the waterway.

"Transits over recent days look to have ‌risen sharply, (which) the market will ‌treat as a proxy for both physical oil, perhaps paper oil, and diplomatic ‌progress," said Sparta Commodities' head of research Neil Crosby in ‌a note. "It feels like we will be stuck in this bearish risk-off/optimistic mood until such time as something changes."

The price declines come after a weekend that had appeared to put the week-old accord in jeopardy, including ‌threats from US President Donald Trump to restart the war if Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait ⁠of Hormuz ⁠after Tehran declared the strategic waterway closed.

"There remains a prevailing dose of market skepticism, rooted in deep-seated mistrust between Washington and Tehran, suggesting that any return to pre-war oil prices is likely to be delayed rather than immediate," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Separately, analysts in a Reuters poll expect US crude inventories to have fallen last week, along with distillate and gasoline inventories.

On Monday, government data showed US crude stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 331.2 million barrels last week, the lowest since June 1983, as supplies tightened in the wake of the US-Iran conflict.