Verify before you pay

Each rule behind the five checks above comes with a public register. The Real Estate General Authority (REGA) advertising rule, in force since 1 May 2026, covers an advertisement on any channel, and the platforms that carry advertisements must verify advertisers through Nafath. A Wafi licence for an off-plan project rests on an escrow agreement with a licensed bank in the Kingdom, and any reservation money taken while the project is marketed must go into that account. Purchases by non-Saudis all run through the Saudi Properties portal, which REGA calls “the official platform for the Law”.

Buyers in Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah (Medina) are targeted because they buy from far away, for reasons of faith and family, and often in a hurry before Ramadan or Hajj. Work through all five, and do not skip one because the seller seems kind.

Since 1 May 2026 every real estate advertisement, on any channel, needs a REGA advertisement licence, and electronic platforms must integrate with REGA, verify advertisers via Nafath and host in the Kingdom. The regulation also requires an independent licence before any ad is published, prohibits false or misleading data, and applies penalties according to a classification table of violations. Two secondary sources add that every ad must display its licence number together with the advertiser’s name, REGA licence number and contact details.

The first thing to ask of any listing, brochure, WhatsApp message or Instagram post is its advertisement licence number, and the second is whether that number checks out. REGA’s public enquiry takes the advertisement number and reports whether a licence exists and its status, with no login. REGA’s launch announcement describes a wider search, by licence number, brokerage contract number or deed, and says the service exists to reduce the circulation of fraudulent ads; the form a reader meets today asks for the ad number.

REGA has also licensed 71 electronic real estate platforms and says unlicensed platforms face legal action. Treat a listing on an unlicensed site as a warning.

Reported fine ceilings for advertising violations differ between secondary sources, one citing up to SAR 40,000 doubled for repeat offences and another up to SAR 200,000, so we do not state a figure. The amount counts for less than the breach itself, since a seller who breaks this rule may break others.

FAL is REGA’s licence for real estate activity. REGA defines it as an official permit that allows individuals and establishments to conduct real estate activities within the capacity of the licence, covering brokerage and marketing, property management, facility management, auctions, consultations and advertising. A person who “helps buyers from abroad” for a commission is doing brokerage, and needs one.

REGA’s public FAL enquiry offers two search fields: the licence holder’s ID number, or the establishment number of their office. Ask for one of those two numbers, because a name or a licence number will not find anyone. REGA also describes a broker enquiry on its e-services platform that searches by broker licence number, brokerage contract number or ownership document number. Ask before the first call ends. If the answer is “I work with a licensed office”, ask for that office’s establishment number and check that instead; then ask why your contact does not have a number of their own. Do not deal with anyone who will not give you a number you can check.

Keep two facts in mind when you read a commission proposal. The default commission is 2.5% of the transaction value unless agreed otherwise in writing, paid by the party who engaged the broker. An advertisement licence is also separate from the FAL licence, so a licensed broker still needs a licence for each ad they publish.

If the unit is not built yet, the project needs a Wafi licence. REGA describes Wafi as the official organisation in Saudi Arabia that grants licences for selling off-plan units, and its licences include off-plan sales licences, marketing licences with or without receiving reservation amounts, and developer qualification certificates. REGA’s Wafi platform page carries a public “Wafi Projects” list of licensed projects showing project name, developer, location, licence type and status. Look the project up there first.

The protections that come with the licence are the reason to insist on it. A licence requires an escrow account agreement between the developer and a licensed bank in the Kingdom, and a developer that takes reservation amounts during marketing must deposit all of them into that account. A developer may not receive more than 5% of the value of each unit as a reservation. The developer must disclose the current status of the project and its future plans, and use a sales agreement with handover dates specified by day.

The regulator’s public off-plan enquiry is the most useful of the checks. For each licensed project it shows the licence number and its dates, the developer, the unit types, how far construction has got, and the escrow bank and account number. Most cross-border property fraud comes down to money sent to the wrong account, and the right account is published. Before you pay a reservation, put the account you were given beside the one the register shows for that project, and if they differ, stop.

Two secondary guides state that buyer payments are then released to the developer according to construction progress, with disbursement depending on completion percentages assessed by the supervising engineering office. We have not yet found that release mechanism quoted from an official text, so treat it as the general design until an official text confirms it.

A licensed listing shows its numbers. Aqarmap’s launch page for Masar Corner, for example, displays a Wafi licence number and a REGA advertisement licence number alongside a SAR 1,000 booking amount, though we have not confirmed those numbers against REGA’s services ourselves. Expect numbers on the page and a way to check them.

No broker, developer or “facilitator” can make the application for you. REGA describes the Saudi Properties portal as “the official platform for the Law” and publishes a contact address and phone number for it, Saudiproperties@rega.gov.sa and 920017183. A non-resident first obtains a Saudi digital ID designated for real estate ownership through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in practice a Saudi embassy. You then need a Saudi bank account and a Saudi mobile number linked to that ID, and every payment is made electronically through the SAMA-integrated portal.

Paying only through the portal is the strongest protection you have. If someone asks you to pay the purchase price, or a “portal fee”, or a “government processing charge”, to any account that is not the portal or the escrow bank, the request is wrong.

The portal also lets you check the other side of the table. Its developer register lists each developer’s name, unified commercial registration number, establishment type and contact details, with no login. Its property-requirements checker also asks whether the property is an off-plan project and, if so, for the project’s licence number, the same number the Wafi register carries. A developer who is not on that register, or a project whose licence number the checker does not recognise, is a conversation to end.

Answer the eligibility questions yourself and truthfully. Deliberately false information in an ownership application can lead to a fine of up to 5% of the property value, capped at SAR 10 million, and a court-ordered sale. An agent who offers to “handle the declarations” is offering to put your property at risk.

Before you pay any deposit, hold the request against these rules:

• A reservation above the Wafi ceiling of 5% of the unit value is not allowed under a marketing licence.
• A reservation that is not paid into the project’s escrow account is outside the protection the licence exists to give.
• A purchase payment outside the SAMA-integrated portal is outside the process the executive regulations describe.
• A request to pay in your home currency to a personal account, a money-transfer app or an overseas company has no place in any of the above.
• A “hold the unit until tomorrow” deadline is a pressure tactic with no basis in any of these rules.

A completed unit should have a registered title. The property must be registered in the Real Estate Registry, and unregistered deeds are looked up at the Ministry of Justice. REGA’s Real Estate Registry page links a “Real Estate Enquiries” service for looking up property registrations.

REGA states that a registration acquires absolute legal effect after one full year from publication of the owners’ lists if no objection is filed, after which it is valid before courts and all authorities and cannot be contested, annulled or cancelled except for clerical error or forgery. Ask for the deed number, look it up, and make sure the seller of record is the person or company you are dealing with.

You can spot these without any numbers. They are the forms fraud takes when it is aimed at Muslims abroad.

• A building described as “in the foreign ownership area” that cannot be found on the official map.
• Units “released early” in a project whose own website says sales have not started.
• A company in your own country selling Saudi units without a FAL number, an ad licence or the developer’s authorisation to show.
• A price justified by a view of the Haram that no floor plan, deed or photograph supports.
• An introduction through your mosque, family or community, used to skip the checks you would apply to a stranger.
• A website that looks like the Saudi Properties portal, or an agent who offers to “apply for you” through their own system.
• Someone who offers to answer the eligibility questions on your behalf.
• A deposit to a private account with a promise that the contract “follows next week”.
• A long lease described as freehold, or the reverse, without the term written down. The residences in the Makkah Clock Tower were sold as a 23-year leasehold, and what you would own is a question of its own.
• A “buyer” selling you their place in a queue for a unit they do not own.

You now have five public checks and one official portal, and each of them can be used from abroad at no cost. A licensed seller will give you an ad licence number, an ID or establishment number you can check, a Wafi licence number and a deed number without being asked twice. If any of them is missing or fails its check, stop before you have spent anything. Comparing the escrow account with the register, on its own, stops most of what goes wrong.