There is a temptation to ask whether “the Saudi property market” went up or down in the second quarter of 2026. CBRE’s sector review does not answer that question, because it does not describe one market moving one way. On CBRE’s numbers, nationwide residential transactions weakened sharply while Riyadh’s prime-office rents edged higher against tight Grade A supply — two sectors pointing in opposite directions within the same quarter.
The residential figures are the clearest signal of weakness. CBRE reports nationwide residential transaction value down 26.9% year on year, to SAR 37.67 billion, with deal volume down 14.2%. Both value and volume fell, and value fell considerably faster than the number of deals — a pattern visible in the figures themselves, and one for which CBRE’s review offers no single explanation.
Riyadh’s prime-office segment sits at the other end of the contrast. CBRE reports prime-office rents up 3%, to SAR 3,320 per square metre, in a market it characterises as having tight Grade A supply. Set beside the residential result, the juxtaposition is stark: transaction value down 26.9% in one sector, rents up 3% in the other, in the same review of the same country.
On the forward view, CBRE projects about 0.6 million square metres of Riyadh office deliveries in 2026 — a projection of how tight Grade A conditions might evolve, for one city’s office sector.
Residential, office, retail, hospitality and logistics are covered as distinct sectors with their own periods, geographies and measures, and CBRE’s review neither establishes a shared driver behind them nor offers a single “market up” or “market down” verdict.
All figures here are CBRE proprietary research, relayed by outlets such as Arab News rather than drawn from official Saudi statistics. On those numbers, the second quarter’s answer is not a single direction but a divergence: residential transactions contracting while Riyadh prime offices held firmer — a picture that has to be read sector by sector.
References
CBRE — Saudi Arabia Real Estate Market Review Q2 2026; Arab News — Saudi office and retail markets stay resilient as housing sector weakens in Q2.
