Saudi Land Development Hits 146M sqm in Eastern Province

The White Land Fees Program said Thursday that 146 million square meters of land is now under development in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The figure tracks parcels where owners have started construction to avoid penalties under the program, which taxes undeveloped urban land.

The update gives the clearest snapshot yet of how much idle land the fee structure has actually shifted into active development. The Eastern Province, home to Dammam and Dhahran, holds a large share of the kingdom's undeveloped residential plots. Program officials said the volume shows developers are responding to the fee, though they did not give a comparable baseline from before the program began.

A missing comparison makes it hard to know whether the 146 million square meters represents acceleration or just a backlog of land that was already moving through permitting. Real estate analysts following the program have pointed out that the fee's impact varies by city. In Riyadh and Jeddah, where land values are higher, the fee has pushed more owners to build or sell. In the Eastern Province, lower land values may mean the fee has less bite.

The program itself is part of a broader push to increase housing supply and cool speculation in undeveloped land. The Saudi government has set a target of 70% homeownership by 2030. Developers who sit on land face annual fees of up to 2.5% of the land's value. That math changes for smaller plots or areas with weaker demand, where building might still not pencil out.

What matters next is whether the Eastern Province figure rises in the coming quarters. A steady increase would suggest the fee is working as designed. A plateau would point to a ceiling on how much idle land the program can actually force into development.