RAFAL Real Estate Development Co: Riyadh, The Laboratory for Change In and Across Saudi Arabia

Elias Abousamra, CEO at RAFAL Real Estate Development Co., gives an overview of the real estate sector in Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh, and talks about RAFAL’s unique proposition.

“The real estate market in Saudi Arabia has been undergoing lots of change and quite quickly as well. The market is shifting from a very local market driven by demand for housing, primarily classical, suburban, low-rise villa type of housing, into an international market which means skyscrapers, brick, super regional malls, mixed-use developments. Riyadh is about to have its Metro operational after seven years of work and that would open the opportunity for transit oriented developments. The local population is starting to migrate from villa residences to apartments and lofts in a mixed-use environment. Walkability is becoming key. All this is meant to change the urban fabric of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. But historically, Riyadh has been the laboratory for change in and across Saudi Arabia. Whatever we are seeing in Riyadh should cascade into other secondary cities and other major cities like Jeddah, etc. Urban mobility is driving change. The social and cultural renaissance that has been brought by Vision 2030 is also another factor that is driving the change. We at RAFAL are at the forefront of this change. The company has started several breakthroughs over the past 15 years. It was the first company to build gated communities in Riyadh, for instance, with clubhouses and amenities. This was unseen at the time in 2007 and 2008. Also, over the last 10 years, two high-rise mixed-use developments were launched with international operators and high-end F&B. This high-end corporate style living was introduced by RAFAL to the city and now we are upgrading our offering to fit the new momentum in the market. We are directing new projects to infill district development within the city. We are not following scale in that we do not want to be the tallest and the biggest; rather, we want to remain niche. But we want to serve this affluent population that is growing through a number of projects that we have coming up”, says Elias Abousamra.

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