Saudi New Home Loans Held Near 5.87 Billion Riyals in August as Apartments Took Share From Villas

New Saudi residential mortgage lending held near 5.87 billion riyals in August, but apartments took share from both villas and land inside that flat headline.

Banks in Saudi Arabia extended about 5.87 billion riyals of new residential mortgage finance in August 2026, essentially unchanged on both the previous month and the same month a year earlier, according to the Saudi Central Bank's monthly bulletin as reported on 1 October. The average contract came to 598,000 riyals. The flat headline, however, sits on top of a mix that moved appreciably.

Apartments gained while villas and land both gave way

Lending against villas fell from 3,709 million riyals in July to 3,661 million in August, and land finance fell from 335 million to 290 million riyals. Apartment lending went the other way, rising from 1,829 million to 1,914 million riyals. Villas still account for about 62% of the total, so the ranking did not change — but the direction of travel did, and all three segments moved at once. The month-on-month decline in the overall figure was reported at around 8 million riyals, which is what a shift of that shape produces when the gains and losses nearly cancel.

The contract count moved too. July recorded 9,600 new contracts; August came in close to 9,800. Two readings of the same bulletin put the August figure at 9,807 and 9,810, a three-contract difference we are not going to pretend away, and one that changes nothing material. More contracts drawing on the same total is the arithmetic behind a 598,000-riyal average, and it belongs in the same sentence as the segment shift: the market financed slightly more homes with the same money, and a larger slice of them were apartments.

Finance companies, which sit outside the banking figures, lent 191 million riyals in August against 267 million riyals in July — a level Argaam reports as 14% higher than a year earlier. That line is small and volatile enough that a single month should not be read as a trend.

Saudi Arabia is a market where you can see the borrowing but not the price

This release matters more here than the same release would elsewhere, and the reason is a gap in the public record rather than anything about the numbers. Glopra publishes no national price per square metre and no national rent for Saudi Arabia, and the market row carries that explanation where a number would otherwise sit. The official Real Estate Price Index gives percentage change only and never a level in riyals. The valuation firms that do publish levels report them city by city, and the only comparable price series covers Riyadh, which is why it lives on our Riyadh row and not the country row. On the rent side, the published figures are year-on-year percentages or district numbers from publishers who do not also publish a matching price.

That is why a monthly mortgage series carries unusual weight for this market. It is the clearest nationwide, officially sourced figure available on what Saudi housing actually costs to finance — not a price, but the closest regularly published neighbour to one.

The ownership rules this lands on

Our Saudi row records direct foreign ownership as permitted since 21 January 2026, in designated zones only, with Mecca and Medina excluded. We flag our own confidence on this as low, because the detail is still settling: the zone list and the collection mechanism are not finally established, and whether an owner is treated as having a permanent establishment is an open question. The right to buy exists, in other words, and its boundaries do not yet.

Two cautions close the picture. The primary bulletin page was not reachable when we checked, so these figures come from two independent press readings of it rather than from the central bank's own page, and we have said where each number comes from. And mortgage volumes measure finance, not supply or price: a flat lending month in a market whose price level is not published at all is a narrow piece of evidence, not a verdict on where Saudi housing is heading.

Sources: Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) monthly bulletin for August 2026, as reported by Argaam, 1 October 2026 https://www.argaam.com/en/article/articledetail/id/1940627; Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) August 2026 bulletin, as reported by Arab News, 1 October 2026 https://www.arabnews.com/finance/8-things-samas-latest-report-reveals-about-a-changing-saudi-arabia-3004059; Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) July 2026 bulletin, as reported by Argaam, 31 August 2026 https://www.argaam.com/en/article/articledetail/id/1932873

Market data: Riyadh · Saudi Arabia