Investing in Makkah and Madinah without a unit

A REIT is a listed fund that owns income-producing property and pays out most of its rent. The main holy-city example is Jadwa REIT Al Haramain, which gives a listed stake in Makkah real estate through its hotels. Jadwa describes it as a closed-end Shariah-compliant traded REIT focused on Makkah and Madinah, and its assets include the Tharawat Al-Taqwa hotel, acquired in 2017 for SAR 250 million, the Tharawat Al-Andaloseya hotel, acquired in 2017 for SAR 379 million, and the Tharawat Wadi Ibrahim hotel redevelopment, acquired in 2020 for SAR 160 million, all in Makkah.

Two things follow from that list. It is a hotel fund, so its income moves with pilgrim occupancy and room rates, and apartment rents do not enter into it. The source for the assets is also the fund manager’s own page, so treat it as the company describing itself and read the latest fund report before you act.

Jadwa REIT Al Haramain is the listed REIT whose published asset schedule names Makkah property. If you are told another REIT holds holy-city property, ask for its own asset schedule first.

The second route is shares in the companies building the zones. The CMA’s decision of 27 January 2025 allowed foreign investors to buy shares or convertible debt of Saudi-listed companies that own real estate in Makkah and Madinah, with combined non-Saudi ownership capped at 49% of a company’s shares and foreign strategic investors excluded. Argaam identified Jabal Omar Development, Taiba Investments, Makkah Construction and Development and Knowledge Economic City as the four listed companies that decision opened; Arab News names three of the four, so the fourth rests on one source.

Three of those names also appear on this site as developers. Jabal Omar is the developer behind the Jabal Omar zone, and told the Saudi Exchange on 28 June 2026 that it will offer 400 existing hotel-residential units for sale in 2026 as a first phase. Knowledge Economic City reported that 231 of the 351 units in its Al-Alya project in Madinah were reserved by non-Saudi buyers, worth more than SAR 547 million, by July 2026. Taiba Investments is a listed hospitality company that operates hotels in Madinah and is developing a Waldorf Astoria of around 300 rooms and a Sheraton of around 435 rooms near the Prophet’s Mosque, according to its own site.

A fourth name listed after the decision is Umm Al Qura for Development and Construction, the developer of Masar in Makkah, which listed on the Saudi Exchange main market on 24 March 2025 under symbol 4325 at SAR 15 a share after an IPO of 130,786,142 new shares approved by the CMA.

A share in a developer is a part of the whole company, with its land, hotels, retail, construction and debt, and its price moves with the market as much as with events at the Haram. Read the company’s own disclosures on the Saudi Exchange before any broker’s summary.

SEDCO Capital and Wahed announced on 7 September 2026 a Shariah-compliant suite giving Wahed’s clients access to Makkah and Madinah real estate. The release describes an intended, publicly offered, Shariah-compliant real estate investment suite focused on Makkah and Madinah for eligible investors including Wahed’s 500,000 global investor base, and gives no launch date, minimum ticket or fund terms.

No further details are public yet. The suite is aimed at readers who want a small, managed investment in place of a unit, but until the offering document exists there is nothing to evaluate. We will add the terms when they are published.

Until early 2026 a foreign individual generally needed to go through a Qualified Foreign Investor or a swap arrangement. That requirement has gone. The CMA announced on 6 January 2026, effective 1 February 2026, that all categories of foreign investor, institutional and individual, may invest directly in the Saudi main market through licensed Saudi brokerages without QFI status, keeping the 49% aggregate and 10% single-investor ownership caps and sector-specific restrictions.

In practice you choose a CMA-licensed brokerage, complete its account-opening and identity checks, fund the account and trade. Each brokerage sets its own documents and its own list of countries it serves; ask before you start. The holy-city companies sit inside the general market rules, so the 49% company cap and the exclusion of strategic investors apply on top.

If you already hold a Saudi digital ID, bank account and mobile number for a property purchase, the same identity is what a brokerage will ask for.

Most readers of this site will want to know whether an indirect route is permissible for them. We do not issue rulings. In outline, a Shariah-compliant fund or REIT is one whose own Shariah board has approved its structure, income sources and financing, and Jadwa describes REIT Al Haramain that way, as SEDCO Capital and Wahed describe their suite. For an ordinary listed company, screening usually looks at what the business does and at how much of its balance sheet and income comes from interest-bearing debt and deposits; the thresholds differ between screening bodies, so check the standard your own scholar or broker uses instead of assuming a developer is compliant because it builds near the Haram.

• You own a slice of a company or fund, so you have no control over the property. You cannot choose tenants, sell the building or decide the payout, and a REIT unit gives no right to stay near the Haram.
• Listed units and shares can be sold, but only at the market’s price, and a closed-end REIT can trade below the value of its assets for long periods.
• A hotel fund follows hotel trading, which is a different market from housing. JLL reported that in Q2 2026 Makkah hotel occupancy rose 4.0 percentage points to 68.2% with RevPAR up 8.7%, while Madinah’s RevPAR fell 2.4% despite the Kingdom’s highest occupancy at 75.1%. Income from a hotel fund follows those numbers, and they move both ways.
• Every route here is priced in riyals, so your return in pounds, dollars, ringgit or lira depends on the exchange rate on the day you sell, and nothing on this site predicts it.
• A developer’s shares carry the company’s debt and construction timetable along with its other businesses, and strong demand for units, such as KEC’s reported reservations, does not by itself mean a profit.
• The 49% ceiling per company and the 10% single-investor cap can limit what you can buy, and sector rules continue to apply.
• Anything described as “intended”, like the SEDCO Capital and Wahed suite, has no terms yet and should not be paid for on the strength of a press release.

If your budget is below the price of a unit, the indirect routes are regulated and, since February 2026, open to you directly through a Saudi brokerage. They give you a financial stake in the holy cities’ property market, but no home, residency or control. If you want a place to pray from, keep saving for a unit and read our guide on owning versus investing. If you want an investment, read the fund’s or company’s own documents on the Saudi Exchange and choose with a licensed adviser who knows your position at home.

This is not legal advice. Rules change, and each fact above shows the date we last checked it. Speak to a licensed adviser before you commit money.