Business & Money | Tuesday 6 January, 2015 8:54 am |

Real estate indicators released by the Ministry of Justice reveal that prices of residential real estate transactions in Riyadh fell by 23 percent during the month of November, as compared to the previous month.
These transactions included 5,499 buildings valued at SR6.3 billion while the value of acquired land plots amounted to 89 percent of the total value of real estate transactions.
The report released by the Information Department at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed an increase in real estate transactions by 12 percent over last year’s average. Riyadh came in first place, followed by Makkah with regard to real estate liquidity.

Jeddah was third where the total volume of trade exceeded SR5 billion.
Indicators also point out that the value of residential real estate transactions in Makkah during the month of November exceeded SR5 billion, whereas commercial real estate transactions reached nearly SR2.3 billion, which represents the highest real estate liquidity values in the real estate market in Makkah since Ramadan of last year.
The average price per square meter in Makkah decreased over the past four months. Real estate indicators show that the average price per residential square meter is SR435, a decline of about 79 percent of the total average for the Hijri year 1435.

In December last year, the price per square meter was valued at 1,538.
The report was based on a reading of real estate indicators for November 2014, based on three factors: the average price per square meter of land, the indicators of the average price of land, and the total value of real estate transactions per month.

The Information Department at the Makkah chamber revealed that the average figures do not necessarily mean a decline in the price of real estate in the densely populated residential areas, as it is possible that real estate sales and purchases are occurring in remote areas in Makkah.
At the same time, the figures give an indication about the direction of investment in cheaper land located on the outskirts of Makkah.