Own use or investment near the Haram

The case for own use is simple and does not depend on market data. Ownership in Makkah and Madinah is open to Muslim individuals whether they live inside or outside the Kingdom, so a family in Manchester or Kuala Lumpur can hold a home near the Haram in its own name. Ownership is the right the law grants; usufruct of up to 99 years remains available as a lighter alternative for those who prefer it, and on the portal’s zone cards that figure is the maximum usufruct duration and places no limit on ownership.

The practical questions for an own-use buyer are about location, building services and how many weeks a year the unit will be used. Each designated zone has its own page on this site, and the eligibility card on each tells you what applies there. The costs on top of the price are the same whichever motive you have: Real Estate Transaction Tax of 5% of the transaction value, the 2% non-Saudi ownership fee in Makkah and Madinah, and a default broker commission of 2.5% if you use one.

The own-use buyer’s main risks are the empty-unit charge, covered below, and the running costs of a home used a few weeks a year.

Here the rules are stricter.

Renting a residential unit by the night to visitors requires a private tourism hospitality facility permit from the Ministry of Tourism, applied for on its TLG portal for SAR 1,100 a year, and the sources we reviewed state that the applicant must be a Saudi citizen, with a limit of 3 permits per building and 8 per person. The ministry’s own page was not reachable when we checked, and we have found no announcement that the citizenship condition has been changed for the new non-Saudi owners. Separately, Gulf News reported in January 2023 that Saudi citizens could obtain permits to house Hajj pilgrims, capped at three per person in one property after an engineering inspection; that report stands on its own, and Hajj housing rules are set each season. If Umrah-season nightly income is the whole point of your purchase, get written confirmation from the Ministry of Tourism, or from a licensed hospitality operator who would hold the permit, before you commit.

For long-term leases, the ownership law and its executive regulations contain no clause restricting a non-Saudi owner from leasing; the fee provisions speak of the non-Saudi’s “disposition” of real rights and say nothing about rent. What does apply is the general rule: every residential or commercial lease, whatever its term, must be registered on REGA’s Ejar platform or it is unenforceable, and a tenant can register it if the landlord will not, with the landlord able to object within 60 days. Registering through Ejar requires the Saudi digital ID, bank account and mobile number you already needed to buy.

On yields, the research houses publish prices, transaction counts and hotel performance for the two cities, and no residential rental yield. Treat a yield quoted by a seller as that seller’s assumption, and ask to see the leases behind it.

The numbers below cover whole cities, with no separate figure for the streets near the Haram, and they come from named research houses.

The same review put Madinah’s first-half 2025 residential transaction value up 49% year on year at SAR 3.4 billion with volumes up 38%, while Makkah’s transaction value fell 33% as volumes rose 11%. A later press report of GASTAT’s price index for Q2 2026, which we have not yet corroborated with the GASTAT release itself, put the national index up 1.3% with Makkah region up 0.4% and Madinah down 4.5%.

Hotel figures come closest to measuring pilgrim demand, and JLL reported that in Q2 2026 Makkah hotel occupancy rose 4.0 percentage points to 68.2% with RevPAR up 8.7%, while Madinah had the Kingdom’s highest occupancy at 75.1% with RevPAR down 2.4%. They are hotel figures and say nothing directly about apartment yields, but they show that demand and price can move in different directions in the same quarter.

Hajj 2026 brought 1,707,301 pilgrims, of whom 1,546,655 came from abroad. The first half of 2025 recorded 20.7 million Umrah pilgrims. Arab News reported that the Kingdom targets 30 million Umrah pilgrims a year by 2030, a figure we have from a single press source.

Buyer demand is visible in developer disclosures. 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. A single press report says Jabal Omar plans to sell about 400 serviced apartments in 2026, which we have not confirmed with the company. REGA’s spokesman was reported in August 2026 as saying inquiries from UK investors and family offices cover Makkah and Madinah with particular attention; that too is a single press source.

Strong demand does not by itself tell you what a specific unit will rent or sell for.

This rule affects the own-use buyer most. Regulations approved on 13 May 2026 introduce a vacant-property fee of up to 5% per year of a building’s value where it is unused for six months or more, in zones to be announced. The detail matters: a building counts as vacant if unused for 6 months in the reference year whether consecutive or not, the zones are set by decision of the Minister of Municipalities and Housing, cases where occupancy is impossible for reasons beyond the owner’s control are exempted, and the fee is payable within six months of the invoice with a right to object.

No zone has been named in the sources we have reviewed, so nobody can yet say whether a holy-city apartment used only for Umrah will be caught. Two points are settled enough to plan around. The test is whether the unit is used, whoever owns it, and the exemption covers occupancy that is impossible, which is more than inconvenient. If you expect to use the unit a few weeks a year, ask your adviser how a long lease, a family member’s occupancy or an operator arrangement would be treated.

Three costs sit around a resale. The 2% non-Saudi fee is levied by REGA on “the value of a non-Saudi’s disposition of real rights in property”, wording that does not state whether purchase, sale or both are covered. The parties allocate that fee between them, so price it as the buyer’s. Zero-rated cases include resale to the original owner within 180 days, estate division, court orders, co-owner partition and developer unit sales within the licence period plus one year. Real Estate Transaction Tax of 5% applies to the transaction value.

Any resale must go through the Real Estate Registry, where the title sits. If your buyer is also a non-Saudi, they will need the same digital ID, bank account and portal route you used.

• How many nights a year will someone from my family sleep there? The empty-unit rule turns on use.
• If I cannot let it by the night, does the purchase still make sense on a long lease or on no income at all?
• What is the exit? Who would buy it from me, and what would they pay in fees to do so?
• Am I buying a home or a return? If the answer is “both”, which one would I give up?
• Have I seen the licence for the advertisement and the broker, and checked them on REGA’s inquiry service?
• Have I asked a licensed adviser, in writing, about the vacant-property fee and the resale fee, and about the letting permit?

If you are buying to use, the route is open and the main unanswered question is the vacant-property fee. If you are buying to let, the path is open for long leases and, on the evidence we have, closed for nightly Umrah lets unless the citizenship condition changes or an operator holds the permit. No source we would cite publishes yield figures yet. Put a quoted price into the cost calculator for both scenarios before you decide.

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.