_GCC wealth eyeing up Saudi investments

A major conclusion drawn from our 2022 Saudi Report was the disparity between budgets and the residential product being planned across the Kingdom’s Giga projects, highlighting the apparent risk of an oversupply of luxury homes over the next decade.

Faisal Durrani March 14, 2023

A new source of demand for luxury homes?

A potential mitigation of such a risk could be identifying new sources of non-Saudi demand. Given the close historic, economic and cultural links, we feel that the GCC may be an obvious target to widen the field of potential investors and buyers.

Survey 3 has been designed to understand the potential demand from regional HNWI for an investment or home in Saudi Arabia.

When it comes to familiarity with the Kingdom’s Giga projects, NEOM (50%) has been named the project with the highest level of familiarity amongst GCC HNWI. The Red Sea Project (including Amaala) closely follows at 40%, while King Salman Park (35%) is the third most well-known project.

Interestingly, those with a net worth of over US$1 million (36% of our sample in Survey 3) are more familiar with The Red Sea Project (59%) than NEOM (56%).

Overall, 97% of all respondents are interested in purchasing a property in any Giga project. Echoing the trend with Saudi nationals, Survey 3 reveals that NEOM (27%) is the most attractive to this group. The Red Sea Project (incl. Amaala) (18%) and Jeddah Central (16%) rank in second and third places, respectively.

NEOM is king

While interest in purchasing in NEOM is universal, regardless of net worth, those with a net worth of over $1 million name The Red Sea Project (including Amaala) as their second most preferred Giga project (26%).

Meanwhile, for those with a net worth of less than US$ 1 million, the second most preferred Giga project is Jeddah Central (16%).