Foreigners will be allowed to own property in Saudi Arabia for the first time in one of four new economic cities under construction in the Kingdom, Bloomberg reported Thursday. King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) will be the first freehold city in the Kingdom, Fahd Al-Rasheed, CEO of Emaar Economic City, the KAEC builder, told the news service. “A lot of people want to invest in the Saudi market and see it as a frontier for real estate investment because of the population explosion here,” he was quoted as saying. The Economic Cities Act issued almost two months ago makes KAEC the first place where foreign nationals and companies are allowed to own property in the Kingdom, the CEO said. Regulations putting the Act into effect will probably be issued within a few months, he said. The new rules will also cover foreclosures, repossessions and the creation of a land registry. About 40 families already live in KAEC and Emaar plans to hand over 470 houses to buyers this year in the project's first phase, Al-Rasheed said. The second stage, including homes for 40,000, is scheduled for completion in 2014. KAEC is designed to house about 2 million people and generate 1 million jobs. The city is part of a $400 billion plan announced by the government in 2008 to invest in Saudi Arabia's infrastructure and make the country less dependent on the oil industry. When completed in 2025, the $27 billion project will cover about the same area as Brussels. KAEC will have the Red Sea's biggest port and an industrial district where French oil company Total SA and US chocolate maker Mars Inc. will operate. The city will be spread over 168 square kilometers, more than the Belgian capital's 162 square kilometers, said bloomberg. “Over the next five years, we expect to spend more than $4 billion developing infrastructure and assets in the city,” Al- Rasheed said. “This won't be done by us alone; it would be with other partners.”
