Property
Sharia-based ownership with restricted foreign acquisition
Real property is registered and protected, but foreign ownership is restricted and acquisition in Mecca and Medina is subject to particular limits.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — General courts. The Real Estate General Authority regulates the sector and brokerage.
Governing law
- Civil Transactions Law 2023 — property provisions
- Law of Real Estate Registration
- Real Estate Ownership and Investment by Non-Saudis Law
In practice
Before 2023 the rules on sale, possession and transfer of land were derived from fiqh reasoning; the Civil Transactions Law now supplies them in enacted form, which makes title analysis considerably more tractable. Foreign ownership is permitted for licensed investment purposes and for residents in defined circumstances, but it is a licensing question rather than a freely exercisable right, and the restrictions on non-Muslim ownership in the two holy cities are absolute rather than administrative. Waqf endowments hold a substantial share of urban land and property subject to waqf is effectively inalienable, which is a common and expensive surprise in transactions.