The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) released today through its official website a report on Real Estate Price Index in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021. According to the GASTAT, the real estate price index (RPI) increased by 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter of the previous year, mainly due to increases in residential land prices. The decline in commercial real estate prices by 0.7% and agricultural real estate prices by 0.2% had a dampening effect on the general index. Residential land prices are the driving factor of the rise in real estate prices in Q4 of 2021 relative to Q4 of 2020. The residential real estate prices increased by 1.7% on an annual basis in the fourth quarter of 2021, affected by the increase in residential land plots prices by 2.0%, which contributed to the rise in the general index, due to its high importance in the index. The Real Estate Price Index aims at creating significant real estate statistical indicators that measure the performance of the real estate market in the Kingdom and close the data gap in this sector. It is also an important tool for helping competent authorities to take relevant economic decisions in order to contribute to the sector's development, thus contributing to realizing the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. Its data are also useful for people with interest in economic and statistical analyses of real estate price movement and forecasts within various periods of time. The Real Estate Price Index is a statistical tool for measuring the relative change in real estate prices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is based on a dataset of real estate transactions that are available in the Ministry of Justice in its capacity as the only official reference and source of data on the real estate sector in the Kingdom. This dataset is an outcome of the processes of electronic registration and documentation conducted in the ministry. It includes various variables on real estate transactions such as value, location, sector, and type. Accordingly, GaStat calculates the index on a quarterly basis by sector and type of real estate for all administrative regions of the Kingdom. The base year of the index is 2014.
