Premium Residency and property near the Haram

Premium Residency has seven products: Unlimited Duration at SAR 800,000 one-time, Limited Duration at SAR 100,000 a year, and five that each carry a SAR 4,000 fee: Special Talent, Gifted, Investor, Entrepreneur and Real Estate Owner. We could not fetch the Premium Residency Center’s own pages when we checked, so the product list and fees rest on three independent secondary sources that agree with one another; confirm the current fee with the Center before you pay anything.

Holders may live in Saudi Arabia with eligible family members without a sponsor, travel in and out without exit and re-entry visas, work in the private sector, do business under the investment rules, issue visit visas for relatives and employ domestic workers. Our sources list no other benefits, and none of these is a route to citizenship.

The property must be residential, developed and worth at least SAR 4 million, free of mortgages and valued by a valuer accredited by Taqeem. It may be held by ownership or by a usufruct right, and the residency lasts as long as that ownership or usufruct lasts. It may not be bought with real estate financing and may not be mortgaged before or after the residency is granted.

Two further points rest on a single secondary source: that several residential properties with a combined value of at least SAR 4 million may be aggregated if each is residential and unmortgaged, and that a holder who sells generally has 90 days to replace the property. Do not plan around either until the Premium Residency Center confirms it in writing.

The residency is tied to the property, lasting as long as you hold it, and a financed purchase does not qualify.

Buyers are often misled here, so we set out the texts in date order, because a newer instrument governs an older one on the same subject.

The older text

Previously, the Premium Residency Law on its own gave holders ownership of real estate for residential, commercial and industrial purposes in areas other than Makkah, Madinah and border areas, and usufruct in the two holy cities for up to 99 years. That wording was issued in May 2019, last amended in December 2023, and no later amendment aligning it with the 2026 ownership law was found in the sources we reviewed. It is a rule about what the residency itself grants, written before the 2026 ownership law existed.

The newer text

Article 2(4) of the Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis, in force since 22 January 2026, limits the non-Saudi right to own property in Makkah and Madinah to Muslim natural persons, and the right it restricts is ownership itself. Article 5 of the same law states that it does not prejudice the Premium Residency Law or any other law giving non-Saudis better ownership rights. We re-read both articles on REGA’s page for this guide.

What follows

A Premium Residency holder who is a Muslim individual may therefore own inside the designated zones of Makkah and Madinah under the 2026 law, because that law adds ownership and Article 5 takes nothing away; the residency law’s older wording no longer states the governing rule for such a buyer. Ownership is only possible inside the zones, and the “one residence outside zones” right residents have elsewhere does not apply to the holy cities.

The competing reading

A Saudi law firm wrote on 7 September 2026 that “even after the Non-Saudi Real Estate Ownership Law and its 2026 expansion, the two Holy Cities retain their exception”; the statement repeats the residency law’s older wording and does not address Article 2(4) of the 2026 law, so we record it as disputed and show it here with its date.

The question still open is an administrative one, whether the Premium Residency Center accepts a holy-city unit, held by ownership or by usufruct, for the SAR 4 million Real Estate Owner threshold. The Real Estate Owner product accepts a usufruct right as well as ownership, according to two independent sources. No official source we could reach joins those facts to a holy-city unit, so nobody can yet tell you on the record that a Makkah purchase buys residency. Until the Center answers, treat it as unresolved.

A non-Saudi buyer pays Real Estate Transaction Tax of 5% of the transaction value and the 2% non-Saudi ownership fee in Makkah and Madinah, with or without residency. Premium Residency does not exempt you from either in any source we have seen.

For a buyer who wants a long-term right near the Haram without full ownership, usufruct of up to 99 years remains available in both cities. On the official portal’s zone cards the 99-year figure is the maximum usufruct duration, shown as a separate field from the allowed ownership percentage, and it places no limit on ownership. A usufruct right of more than 50 years is within the scope of Real Estate Transaction Tax, calculated on the present value of the right or of the rent for the whole period, whichever is higher. The two unknowns are whether a usufruct in the holy cities is accepted for the residency threshold, and how a Taqeem valuer values a usufruct right compared with freehold; ask the Center about the first and a valuer about the second.

If your goal is a home near the Haram and residency is a bonus, buy and own as a Muslim individual under the ownership law, inside a zone, and do not count on the unit for residency until the Center confirms it.

If your goal is residency and the property is the means, the sourced route is a residential property outside Makkah and Madinah worth at least SAR 4 million, unmortgaged and Taqeem-valued, or the Investor, Entrepreneur, Talent or Gifted products.

If you want both, and are prepared to wait for an answer, write to the Premium Residency Center before you buy and ask whether a unit in a named Makkah or Madinah zone, held by ownership or by usufruct, will be accepted for the Real Estate Owner product. Keep the reply. If the answer is no, you still own a home near the Haram; if it is yes, you have the answer in writing.

If you already hold Premium Residency, nothing in the new law takes it away, and you qualify to own in the holy-city zones as a Muslim individual in any case.

The advertisement that says “buy in Makkah, get Saudi residency” is not supported by any official source we can find. Ownership in the zones is settled by the 2026 law for Muslim individuals, Premium Residency holders included; whether that unit counts toward the residency threshold is not. The rest of Premium Residency, from the seven products and their fees to the no-mortgage rule and the tie between property and residency, is sourced well enough to plan around, with the Center’s confirmation.

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.