{"id":16518,"date":"2016-06-14T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T08:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/saudi-arabian-cabinet-approves-land-tax-foreign-investment-rules\/"},"modified":"2016-06-14T20:34:18","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T13:34:18","slug":"saudi-arabian-cabinet-approves-land-tax-foreign-investment-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/saudi-arabian-cabinet-approves-land-tax-foreign-investment-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabian cabinet approves land tax, foreign investment rules"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe Saudi Arabian cabinet has approved the fine print of a controversial new tax on undeveloped land aimed at making it more expensive for owners of urban land to keep it empty.Under the new “White Land” tax that was approved on Tuesday, owners of empty plots of urban land designated for housing or offices in towns and cities have to pay a tax of 2.5 per cent of the value of the land each year, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. The taxes will apply to urban undeveloped land plots of 10,000 square metres or more.The Saudi ministry of housing will specify which lands fall under the new tax law and will collect the taxes, the agency reported.Officials are introducing the tax as part of a package of measures aimed at reducing land speculation and providing more affordable homes in a country where an acute shortage of accommodation is coupled with a rapidly growing population.Last week the Saudi Arabian government published details of the housing element of its National Transformation Plan, a blueprint published under the auspices of the deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on crude revenue following the recent oil price crash.The plan proposes to increase the annual growth rate in the property sector from about 4 per cent today to 7 per cent in four years’ time, and to reduce the cost of housing from what averages out as about 10 times gross salaries to five times.The plans also envisages increasing the percentage of Saudi families owning their own homes to 52 per cent from today’s 47 per cent, and to reduce the average time required to approve and licence new housing projects down to two months from more than two years.According to local property brokers, the new tax is already increasing the number of homes being developed in the country.”Before these changes, there used to be significant land appreciation in Saudi Arabia and that meant that the rules were not encouraging anyone to develop,” said Imad Damrah, the managing director of property consultants Colliers in Saudi Arabia.”Since these changes, already Colliers has been involved in a number of agreements between developers and the ministry of housing regarding affordable housing.”lbarnard@thenational.aeRead the full text of the National Transformation Plan here.Follow The National’s Business section on Twitter
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Saudi Arabian cabinet approves land tax, foreign investment rules<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Saudi Arabian cabinet has approved the fine print of a controversial new tax on...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-4iq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16504,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/saudi-cabinet-approves-land-tax-foreign-investment-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":16518,"position":0},"title":"Saudi cabinet approves land tax, foreign investment rules","date":"June 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Saudi Arabia's cabinet approved a tax on undeveloped urban land and rules allowing foreign investors to own 100 per cent of retail and wholesale businesses, the official SPA news agency said on Monday.The 2.5 per cent annual tax on the value of undeveloped land designated for residential or commercial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51604,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/jll-foresees-watershed-year-for-saudi-property-market\/","url_meta":{"origin":16518,"position":1},"title":"JLL foresees 'watershed year' for Saudi property market","date":"April 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Saudi Arabia's property market faces a \"watershed\" year, according to JLL.The introduction of the new white land tax and the drive to create more affordable housing will be key drivers for the market said Craig Plumb, the regional head of research.\"We predict there will be increased activity in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38655,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/saudi-housing-ministry-plans-centre-to-resolve-housing-disputes\/","url_meta":{"origin":16518,"position":2},"title":"Saudi housing ministry plans centre to resolve housing disputes","date":"December 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Saudi Arabia plans to set up a centre to resolve disputes between tenants and landlords.It comes as the kingdom steps up plans to regulate its housing sector as part of wide-reaching plans to reform the country's property market.According to the English language daily Saudi Gazette, the Saudi housing ministry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16006,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/saudi-arabia-to-issue-real-estate-development-fund-sukuk\/","url_meta":{"origin":16518,"position":3},"title":"Saudi Arabia to issue real estate development fund sukuk","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Saudi Arabia plans to issue an Islamic bond, or sukuk, for its Real Estate Development Fund by the end of the 2017-18 financial year, the housing minister said.\"The sukuk programme is specialised for the real estate development fund,\" Majed Al Hogail said.The fund is the largest financier for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29265,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uncertainty-hovers-over-saudi-arabia-residential-property-market\/","url_meta":{"origin":16518,"position":4},"title":"Uncertainty hovers over Saudi Arabia residential property market","date":"October 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r House prices in Saudi Arabia will stutter over the coming year as investors and lenders wait out the effects of economic uncertainty and new government reforms on the kingdom's residential property market.Analysts at the Jeddah asset management and investment firm Alkhabeer Capital said that in the near term rental\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10306,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uae-developers-eagerly-anticipate-formation-of-saudi-housing-company\/","url_meta":{"origin":16518,"position":5},"title":"UAE developers eagerly anticipate formation of Saudi housing company","date":"April 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r The revelation by Saudi Arabia that it will launch a state-backed development company in a bid to ease its housing shortage has sparked the interest of UAE developers. Saudi Arabia's housing minister, Majed Al Hogail, told Bloomberg it would create a development company that will give businesses plots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}