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Saudi Arabia Pushes Owners of White Land to Revive Properties, Boost Supply

A housing project in Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A housing project in Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia Pushes Owners of White Land to Revive Properties, Boost Supply

A housing project in Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A housing project in Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Real estate experts have described the Saudi Cabinet's decision to amend the White Land Tax system as a significant shift in balancing the supply and demand of the property market.
The move is expected to influence investor and landowner behavior, encouraging them to develop their properties and increase the availability of residential units, thereby revitalizing real estate development projects.
It will also support government efforts to accelerate urban development and offer diverse housing solutions.
The experts predict that the effects of this amendment will begin to be felt in the real estate market by the third quarter of 2025, with the most significant impact expected in the first half of 2026, as a higher number of properties fall under the tax.
On Tuesday, the Saudi Cabinet approved the amendment to the White Land Tax system, following directives from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in March to take urgent action within 60 days to address the white land crisis.
The goal is to increase land supply, curb price inflation, balance supply and demand, and provide affordable residential land.
The recent amendments to Saudi Arabia's White Land Tax system introduce three phased implementation stages. The first phase targets undeveloped land measuring 10,000 square meters or more, located within a designated area set by the Ministry.
The second phase includes developed land of the same size, as well as developed land owned by a single entity within a single plot.
The third phase addresses developed land of at least 5,000 square meters, along with a total of 10,000 square meters or more of developed land owned by a single entity within a city, within the designated area.
The changes also allow for multiple phases to be applied within a single city. The Ministry will periodically review the situation in each city to determine whether to impose, suspend, or adjust the tax phases, allowing cities to bypass a stage and move to the next when necessary.
Currently, the White Land Tax is being implemented in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Makkah as part of its first phase, with a total of approximately 5,500 payment orders covering over 411 million square meters of land. The program recently expanded to include several other cities, including Madinah, Asir, Jazan, Taif, and Tabuk.
Real Estate Development
Commenting on the decision, real estate consultant and expert Al-Aboudi Bin Abdullah told Asharq Al-Awsat that the move marks a significant shift in balancing supply and demand within the real estate market.
He highlighted that the system’s transition from fixed, low-impact fees (set at 2.5%) to a more dynamic, incentivizing tool could see fees rise up to 10%, depending on development progress and land use.
The inclusion of vacant properties under the tax and the consolidation of tax stages will help address the issue of land hoarding within cities, while also expanding the range of land that can be developed within urban boundaries.
Bin Abdullah believes the amendments will address several challenges, including land hoarding and urban stagnation caused by undeveloped plots held for years.
Additionally, the new system aims to reduce the unjustified rise in land prices, curb urban distortions due to vacant plots in fully developed areas, and accelerate both residential and commercial development projects by offering better incentives for land activation.
The changes are expected to increase the supply of land and developed projects in the coming periods, gradually lowering the prices of some white land, particularly in major cities.
This will encourage developers to focus on actual construction rather than holding land passively, while also supporting the government's efforts to speed up urban development and provide a broader range of housing options.
Bin Abdullah predicts that the initial effects of these changes will be felt by the third quarter of 2025, especially once the 90-day registration deadline for white land passes and a year has passed since vacant properties were first registered.
However, the most significant impact on land prices and availability will likely become evident in the first half of 2026, as more properties fall under the tax’s scope.
Investor Behavior Shift
Meanwhile, Khaled Almobid, CEO of Menassat Real Estate, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the current rise in property prices is detrimental to developers, end-users, and the economy, especially in the long term.
He views the amendments to the White Land Tax as a positive step for the real estate market, coming at a timely moment to tackle the sector's challenges.
Almobid emphasized that the primary objective of the changes is to shift investor behavior.
The amendments are designed to encourage investors to move away from using white land as a store of wealth and instead focus on developing these properties, thereby increasing the supply of residential units in the market.
He added that the changes will revitalize development projects, creating jobs across around 150 sectors that work in parallel with the real estate industry, benefiting the overall economic system in cities covered by the White Land Tax.
Almobid also pointed out that the inclusion of vacant properties under the tax is a crucial development.
This measure creates an incentive for property owners and developers to retain tenants, thus preventing vacancies and avoiding further tax burdens.
The move is expected to reduce the previously common practice of raising rents without considering tenants’ financial capabilities.

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Leading Harvard Trade Economist Says Saudi Arabia Holds Key to Success in Fragmented Global Economy

Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
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Leading Harvard Trade Economist Says Saudi Arabia Holds Key to Success in Fragmented Global Economy

Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).

Harvard University economics professor Pol Antràs said Saudi Arabia represents an exceptional model in the shifting global trade landscape, differing fundamentally from traditional emerging-market frameworks. He also stressed that globalization has not ended but has instead re-formed into what he describes as fragmented integration.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, Antràs said Saudi Arabia’s Vision-driven structural reforms position the Kingdom to benefit from the ongoing phase of fragmented integration, adding that the country’s strategic focus on logistics transformation and artificial intelligence constitutes a key engine for sustainable growth that extends beyond the volatility of global crises.

Antràs, the Robert G. Ory Professor of Economics at Harvard University, is one of the leading contemporary theorists of international trade. His research, which reshaped understanding of global value chains, focuses on how firms organize cross-border production and how regulation and technological change influence global trade flows and corporate decision-making.

He said conventional classifications of economies often obscure important structural differences, noting that the term emerging markets groups together countries with widely divergent industrial bases. Economies that depend heavily on manufacturing exports rely critically on market access and trade integration and therefore face stronger competitive pressures from Chinese exports that are increasingly shifting toward alternative markets.

Saudi Arabia, by contrast, exports extensively while facing limited direct competition from China in its primary export commodity, a situation that creates a strategic opportunity. The current environment allows the Kingdom to obtain imports from China at lower cost and access a broader range of goods that previously flowed largely toward the United States market.

Addressing how emerging economies should respond to dumping pressures and rising competition, Antràs said countries should minimize protectionist tendencies and instead position themselves as committed participants in the multilateral trading system, allowing foreign producers to access domestic markets while encouraging domestic firms to expand internationally.

He noted that although Chinese dumping presents concerns for countries with manufacturing sectors that compete directly with Chinese production, the risk is lower for Saudi Arabia because it does not maintain a large manufacturing base that overlaps directly with Chinese exports. Lower-cost imports could benefit Saudi consumers, while targeted policy tools such as credit programs, subsidies, and support for firms seeking to redesign and upgrade business models represent more effective responses than broad protectionist measures.

Globalization has not ended

Antràs said globalization continues but through more complex structures, with trade agreements increasingly negotiated through diverse arrangements rather than relying primarily on multilateral negotiations. Trade deals will continue to be concluded, but they are likely to become more complex, with uncertainty remaining a defining feature of the global trading environment.

Interest rates and artificial intelligence

According to Antràs, high global interest rates, combined with the additional risk premiums faced by emerging markets, are constraining investment, particularly in sectors that require export financing, capital expenditure, and continuous quality upgrading.

However, he noted that elevated interest rates partly reflect expectations of stronger long-term growth driven by artificial intelligence and broader technological transformation.

He also said if those growth expectations materialize, productivity gains could enable small and medium-sized enterprises to forecast demand more accurately and identify previously untapped markets, partially offsetting the negative effects of higher borrowing costs.

Employment concerns and the role of government

The Harvard professor warned that labor markets face a dual challenge stemming from intensified Chinese export competition and accelerating job automation driven by artificial intelligence, developments that could lead to significant disruptions, particularly among younger workers. He said governments must adopt proactive strategies requiring substantial fiscal resources to mitigate near-term labor-market shocks.

According to Antràs, productivity growth remains the central condition for success: if new technologies deliver the anticipated productivity gains, governments will gain the fiscal space needed to compensate affected groups and retrain the workforce, achieving a balance between addressing short-term disruptions and investing in long-term strategic gains.

Business

Aljadaan: Emerging Markets Account for 70% of Global Growth

Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
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Aljadaan: Emerging Markets Account for 70% of Global Growth

Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat

Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Aljadaan stressed Sunday that the world economy is going through a “profound transition,” saying emerging markets and developing economies now account for nearly 60 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power terms and over 70 percent of global growth.

In his opening remarks at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla, the minister said these economies have become an increasingly important driver of global growth with their share of global economy more than doubling since 2010.

“Today, the 10 emerging economies in the G20 alone account for more than half of the world growth. Yet, they face a more complex and fragmented environment, elevated debt levels, slower trade growth and increasing exposure to geopolitical shocks.”

“Unfortunately, more than half of low income countries are either in or at the risk of debt distress. At the same time global trade growth has slowed at around half of what it was pre the pandemic,” Aljadaan added.

The Finance Minister stressed that the Saudi experience over the past decade has reinforced three lessons that may be relevant to the discussions at the two-day conference, which brings together a select group of ministers and central bank governors, leaders of international organizations, leading investors and academics.

“First, macroeconomic stability is not the enemy of growth. It is actually the foundation,” he said.

“Structural reforms deliver results only when institutions deliver. So there is no point of reforming ... if the institutions are unable to deliver,” he stated.

Finally, he said that “international cooperation matters more, not less, in a fragmented world.”

Business

Georgieva from AlUla: Growth Still Lacks Pre-pandemic Levels

Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Georgieva from AlUla: Growth Still Lacks Pre-pandemic Levels

Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Sunday that world growth still lacks pre-pandemic levels, expressing concern as she expected more shocks amid high spending and rising debt levels in many countries.

Georgieva spoke at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla.

The two-day conference brings together a select group of ministers and central bank governors, leaders of international organizations, leading investors and academics to deliberate on policies to global stability, prosperity, and multilateral collaboration.

Georgieva said that the conference was launched last year in recognition of the growing role of emerging market economies in a world of sweeping transformations.

“I came out of this gathering .... With a sense of hope for the pragmatic attitude and determination to pursue good policies and build strong institutions,” she said.

Georgieva stressed that “good policies pay off,” and said that growth rates across emerging economies reached four percent this year, exceeding by a large margin those of advanced economies that are around 1.5 percent.