Cityscape Global, the world’s largest exhibition for real estate, was bigger than ever this year. Opened by His Excellency Majed bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, the Minister of Municipalities and Housing, Riyadh played host to over 400 exhibitors, 200 institutional investors and 500 speakers. New projects and strategic agreements worth over US$51.26 billion were announced in the first two days.
Real estate transactions have surpassed US$167.7 billion since the beginning of this year, marking the sector as key to the Kingdom’s economic diversification plan.
Inside Saudi asked real estate investor and Shark Tank celebrity Kevin O’Leary what makes Saudi Arabia’s real estate sector so attractive.
“Growth, stability, transparency and access to capital. Every year I come here there are more people. Today is packed because Saudi’s economy is growing.”
“Developers need land, power, permits and leadership that is transparent with their vision – and they have it all here.”
“What’s unique is the leadership has a mandate the whole world knows about to diversify its economy away from energy. It will still be an important sector, but diversification brings all 11 other sectors into play. And real estate development is a set of unique verticals. We are all specialists. If you are going to diversify your economy and have so much growth you need everything from housing to recreation,” added O’Leary.
What excites him most is Saudi Arabia’s US$100 billion investment into artificial intelligence. “You can’t do AI without data centres, and this is the most exciting sector in real estate development today. It’s complicated and there’s probably only 25 groups in the world that has ever done them. But the demand is insatiable. Saudi Arabia is going to need major data centres. I’m very fortunate to be among those that does this.”
Some of Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary mega-projects were on display, including Diriyah which will effectively be a new city housing over 100,000 residents. Kiran Haslam, Chief Marketing Officer, Diriyah Company, expressed delight at the high demand for its upcoming residential and commercial properties. At the show, they launched their first luxury affiliated residences, “Raffles Residences Diriyah”, which features 90 properties with access to facilities at the Raffles Diriyah hotel.
“We planned to launch here a Signature collection of branded residences by Ritz Carlton alongside our Raffles-branded residences. All our branded residences with Oberoi had previously sold out within 24 hours. But we also had 106 exclusive units with Ritz Carlton sold out. So, we are seeing a lot of momentum,” Kiran said.
“It’s a 14 square kilometre masterplan, 10 minutes away from the centre of Riyadh and 20 minutes from the airport; a great proposition in terms of investment as well as lifestyle.”
Kiran believes Diriyah’s development will make a massive contribution to Vision 2030. “We are inextricably linked to the identity of Saudi Arabia being the Kingdom’s birthplace. All eyes will be on us, but also people will naturally gravitate towards the beauty and wonder that is Diriyah, an UNESCO World Heritage site.”
Kiran believes what is learnt at Diriyah can be shared. “There is a unique element. How do you understand iconic cultural relevance and identity? Or create a futuristic pedestrian urban environment that amplifies that cultural proposition?”
Meanwhile, Roshn Group, a PIF-owned real estate development company, announced a rebrand as they extend into mixed-use developments.
Alex Malouf, Roshn’s Senior Director Media and PR, explained: “Launched four years ago, Roshn was very much residential, now we have grown into retail and commercial as well. With the rebranding, we are looking at more verticals that can complement our existing projects, such as health care, education and sports. Whatever gives more value to our residents and shareholders.”
In July they announced construction of a futuristic 450,000 square metres new stadium in Riyadh.
Inside Saudi also spoke to Ben Edwards, Group Head of Cost, Commercial and Procurement at Red Sea Global, developer of the previously untouched Red Sea coastline.
The company’s newest luxury destination is Shebara Resort, the first Red Sea globally owned and operated resort. Due to open soon, too, is the Desert Rock resort and next year its Shura golf resort and Amaala wellness resort.
Considerable emphasis is now put on sustainability.
“Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. The resorts are powered off-grid, are solar, renewable and with very low impact on the environment. For instance, we have over 760,000 photovoltaic panels installed at the Red Sea destination and have some of the world’s largest battery storage facilities,” Ben said.
Roshn, too, has an ecological mindset when designing projects, and looks to reduce their carbon footprint and that of suppliers. They are encouraging suppliers to set up locally which will help in reducing transportation. Also, they are incorporating increasing amounts of green space and electric vehicle charging.
At the show, it was announced US$2.08 billion will be invested by the Saudi Investment Recycling Company and Dhahran Municipality into the eastern region.