RIYADH: The General Authority for Statistics, real estate prices in Saudi Arabia increased by 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, mainly due to an increase in residential property values.
As per the GASTAT report, the price of residential properties increased by 2.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of the previous year, mainly due to a 2.7 per cent increase in land plot prices.
Other sub-sectors such as commercial and agricultural real estate saw a marginal decline of 0.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively, slowing the rate of growth in the overall index.
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According to the report, the cost of villas increased by 1.7 per cent, while the prices of apartments increased by 2.2 per cent.
According to GASTAT, house prices declined by 0.4 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2022, while residential and commercial building prices remained stable and showed no relative change.
According to the report, commercial real estate prices declined by 0.2 per cent, while exhibition prices declined by 2.3 per cent due to a fall in the prices of commercial plots of land.
Agricultural real estate prices also fell as agricultural land prices declined by 0.8 percent.
The general real estate index in Saudi Arabia increased by 0.6 percent in the last three months of the year compared to the third quarter of 2022, mainly due to an increase of 0.8 percent in residential property prices.
According to the report, the prices of residential plots have increased by 0.9 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Villa prices increased by 0.1 percent on a quarterly basis, while apartment prices increased by 0.1 percent.
According to the report, the exhibition prices declined by 0.4 per cent, while the prices of commercial buildings remained stable.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's real estate activity fell 53.7 percent in the first week of 2023 as a result of lower liquidity flows due to higher interest rates.
Despite an increase of 19 per cent in the last week of December 2022, the value of residential transactions fell by 47.5 per cent during the first week of 2023.
Despite a decline in the first week of 2023, Saudi Arabia's ongoing government initiatives, such as access to finance and regulatory standardisation, are transforming the Kingdom's housing market, according to a report by PwC Middle East.
The Kingdom's housing demand, which stood at 99,600 units in 2021, is expected to more than double to 153,000 units by 2030.
Earlier this month, Bahrain-based Investcorp announced plans to invest up to $1 billion in Saudi real estate over the next five years.
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Investcorp said in a statement that it has already acquired a logistics warehouse in Dammam in the east of the kingdom, and that it has identified $100 million in potential deals.
