Aqar & Bayut Saudi: The 2026 Guide to Riyadh & Jeddah Property Data Extraction

Saudi Real Estate Is the Largest Vision 2030 Investment Category — And Data Infrastructure Barely Exists

Saudi Arabia’s real estate sector accounts for over $100 billion in annual economic activity and is the single largest investment category under Vision 2030. NEOM, The Line, Red Sea Global, Diriyah Gate, Jeddah Tower, AlUla — the Kingdom is executing the most ambitious real estate development programme in human history.

Behind the mega-projects, the conventional residential and commercial market is equally dynamic. Riyadh is growing toward 15 million residents (from 7.5 million today) as the government mandates corporate headquarters relocation. Jeddah is transforming its waterfront and downtown. Dammam and the Eastern Province are industrialising. Secondary cities are developing rapidly.

And yet — the data infrastructure supporting this trillion-dollar transformation is astonishingly thin.

Aqar (aqar.fm) — Saudi Arabia’s largest property classifieds platform — operates with a model more similar to early-era Craigslist than Zillow. Bayut Saudi brings some portal-quality structure. Haraj (haraj.com) adds classifieds-style listings. But there is no MLS equivalent, no comprehensive transaction database, no Rightmove-quality institutional data layer.

For PropTech startups, developers, mortgage lenders, institutional investors, and government entities, building Saudi real estate data infrastructure from these fragmented sources is simultaneously the hardest and most rewarding data challenge in the Kingdom.

Why Saudi Real Estate Data Is Uniquely Valuable Right Now

1. Riyadh’s Population Is Doubling

The Saudi government’s policy of mandating corporate headquarters relocation to Riyadh is driving the largest single-city population influx in modern Middle Eastern history. Riyadh’s residential demand is growing 8-12% annually. Every developer, investor, and lender needs location-specific data to navigate this.

2. Giga-Project Spillover Effects

NEOM, The Line, Red Sea Global, and other giga-projects are creating residential and commercial demand in entirely new geographic zones. Tracking early listing activity, pricing patterns, and demand signals in adjacent areas provides 12-24 month advance intelligence.

3. Mortgage Market Liberalisation

Saudi Arabia’s mortgage market has been liberalised significantly under Vision 2030. Home ownership rates are targeted to increase from ~47% to 70%. Saudi mortgage lenders (Saudi Home Loans, Alinma Bank, Al Rajhi Bank) need property valuation data to underwrite responsibly at scale.

4. Foreign Investment Opening

Saudi Arabia is progressively opening to foreign real estate investment. International property funds, family offices, and individual investors entering the market need comprehensive data to make informed decisions.

5. Rental Market Transformation

Saudi rental dynamics are shifting — driven by Riyadh’s population influx, changing social norms (more single-person and small-family households), and new compound and apartment developments. Rental yield data is essential for investor intelligence.

6. Off-Plan Is Accelerating

Off-plan sales represent a growing share of Saudi residential transactions. Developer project tracking — pricing, payment plans, construction progress, delivery timelines — is critical market intelligence.

7. Government Data Is Limited

Unlike UAE (where DLD provides transaction data) or UK (where Land Registry is comprehensive), Saudi government property data is fragmented and inconsistently available. Scraped marketplace data fills critical intelligence gaps.

What Data Is Extractable From Each Platform

Aqar (aqar.fm)

Saudi Arabia’s largest property classifieds platform: - Residential and commercial sale/rent listings - Property type (apartment, villa, land, commercial, farm) - Price in SAR, size in square metres - Location (city, district, sub-district) - Room count, bathrooms, property age - Photos and descriptions (Arabic-dominant) - Seller type (owner, agent, developer) - Listing date and update history - Contact information (phone, WhatsApp)

Bayut Saudi (bayut.com/saudi)

• More structured portal-style data: - Property listings with standardised fields
• Developer project pages
• Agent profiles and agency data
• TruEstimate valuation data (where available)
• Area-level pricing trends
• Maps integration and neighbourhood data

Haraj (haraj.com)

• Saudi Arabia’s largest general classifieds platform: - Property section with less structured but broader listings
• Private-party seller data
• Often captures listings that don’t appear on specialist portals
• Price negotiation signals (asking price vs market)

Developer Direct Websites

Major Saudi developers (Dar Al Arkan, Roshn, Jabal Omar, Knowledge Economic City, Emaar Middle East, Al Akaria) maintain project-specific websites with detailed pricing, floor plans, and availability.

Saudi Government Sources

• REGA (Real Estate General Authority): market indicators and regulatory data
• Ejar: rental contract registration platform
• Ministry of Justice: property deed data (limited public access)
• GAM (Saudi Appraisal Authority): valuation standards and market data

Key Data Points Per Property Listing

Residential sale listings: - Listing ID, platform source - City, district, sub-district, coordinates - Property type (apartment, villa, duplex, townhouse, land plot) - Size in square metres (land area + built area) - Rooms, bathrooms, living rooms, maid’s room - Price in SAR, price per square metre - Property age, finish level, furnishing status - Developer, project name (for new developments) - Parking, garden, pool, compound amenities - Street width and facing direction (important in Saudi) - Listing date, days on market

Rental listings (additional): - Annual rent in SAR - Payment frequency (annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly) - Compound vs standalone - Furnished vs unfurnished - Family vs singles designation - Utilities inclusion

Land plot data: - Plot area, street frontage, corner plot indicator - Zoning (residential, commercial, mixed-use) - Infrastructure availability (water, electricity, sewage) - Deed type and legal status

Developer project data: - Project name, developer, location - Unit types and pricing - Payment plans - Construction status and completion date - REGA registration details - Amenities and master plan features

Real-World Use Cases

Saudi PropTech Building the Kingdom’s First Property Intelligence Platform

A Riyadh-based PropTech startup scrapes Aqar, Bayut Saudi, and 50+ developer websites daily to build Saudi Arabia’s first comprehensive property database. Their automated valuation model — trained on scraped listings combined with available transaction data — serves mortgage lenders who previously relied on manual appraisals costing SAR 2,000+ each.

Riyadh Developer Competitive Pricing

A top-tier Saudi developer launching a 2,000-unit residential compound in North Riyadh uses scraped competitor data to set launch pricing. Analysis of 35 comparable developments reveals that the SAR 5,500-6,200/sqm range offers optimal pricing power — competitive enough to attract buyers, premium enough to reflect the development’s quality positioning.

Saudi Mortgage Lender Collateral Valuation

A Saudi bank entering the mortgage market uses scraped comparable-property data to automate preliminary property valuations. Where manual appraisals take 5-7 business days and cost SAR 2,000-3,500, data-driven desktop valuations complete in minutes at a fraction of the cost.

Foreign Investment Due Diligence

An international real estate fund evaluating Saudi residential investments uses scraped market data to assess: supply pipelines by district, pricing trends over 18 months, rental yields by property type, and developer track records.

Riyadh Corporate Housing Intelligence

As multinational corporations relocate headquarters to Riyadh, corporate real estate teams use scraped data to benchmark housing allowance budgets, identify suitable compounds, and track rental market dynamics.

Vision 2030 Infrastructure Planning

Government planning entities use property market data to inform infrastructure investment — where to build schools, hospitals, and transport links based on residential development patterns and population density signals.

Giga-Project Adjacent Investment

Investors tracking NEOM-adjacent real estate (Tabuk region), Red Sea Global-adjacent coastal properties, and Diriyah Gate-adjacent Riyadh developments use scraped data to identify early-stage investment opportunities before mainstream capital arrives.

Technical Challenges

1. Aqar’s Classifieds-Style Architecture

Aqar operates more like a classifieds platform than a structured property portal. Data fields are inconsistently populated, descriptions vary wildly in quality, and duplicate listings are common. Normalisation requires significant effort.

2. Arabic-First Content

Saudi property listings are overwhelmingly Arabic. District names, property descriptions, and neighbourhood identifiers require Arabic NLP with Saudi-specific geographic vocabulary.

3. Price Verification Challenges

Saudi property asking prices frequently differ from transaction prices by 10-25%. Without comprehensive transaction data, bridging this gap requires statistical estimation and market knowledge.

4. Geographic Taxonomy Chaos

Saudi cities don’t have standardised district naming conventions. The same area may be called different names across platforms and even within the same platform. Building a clean geographic taxonomy requires manual curation.

5. Saudi IP Requirements

Property platforms geo-restrict content to Saudi-origin IPs. Saudi residential proxy infrastructure is less mature than UAE or Western markets.

6. Developer Data Fragmentation

Saudi developer websites range from sophisticated portals (Roshn, Dar Al Arkan) to basic HTML pages with PDF brochures. Comprehensive developer coverage requires heterogeneous scraping approaches.

7. Limited Historical Data

Saudi property data platforms are relatively young. Building historical archives requires starting data collection now — early movers accumulate advantages that late entrants cannot replicate.

How Actowiz Powers Saudi Real Estate Data

Actowiz Solutions operates a specialised Saudi Arabia real estate data extraction platform — serving PropTech startups, developers, mortgage lenders, institutional investors, corporate real estate teams, and government planning entities.

What we deliver:

• Multi-platform coverage — Aqar, Bayut Saudi, Haraj property section, and 50+ developer direct websites
• Multi-city coverage — Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam/Khobar, Makkah, Madinah, and emerging cities
• Arabic NLP — Saudi geographic vocabulary, property terminology, and description analysis
• Canonical property resolution — de-duplication across platforms and listing agents
• Geographic taxonomy — curated district and sub-district taxonomy for consistent analytics
• Developer intelligence — project tracking with pricing, construction status, and delivery timeline monitoring
• Government data enrichment — REGA, Ejar, and available public data integration
• Historical archiving — building Saudi property data archives with continuous daily collection
• Flexible delivery — REST API, S3 drops, warehouse loads, or custom analytics dashboards

Our Saudi real estate data pipeline tracks 400,000+ active property listings across the Kingdom with daily refresh.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is scraping Saudi property platforms legal?

Scraping publicly visible property listings generally aligns with accepted web scraping practices. Saudi Arabia’s PDPL focuses on personal data. Legal counsel familiar with Saudi regulations should review your specific use case.

2. Can you cover NEOM-adjacent and giga-project-adjacent areas?

Yes — we monitor listing activity in all Saudi regions including Tabuk (NEOM-adjacent), Red Sea coast, AlUla, and other Vision 2030 development zones.

3. Do you provide property valuation data?

We provide comparable-property datasets that feed AVM models. We don’t directly provide valuations, but our data enables clients to build their own valuation capabilities.

4. How do you handle the Aqar data quality issue?

Our pipeline includes normalisation, de-duplication, and quality scoring for Aqar listings. Low-quality or suspected duplicate listings are flagged but retained for completeness.

5. What’s the engagement pricing?

Saudi real estate data engagements start at SAR 15,000/month (approximately $4,000). Enterprise multi-city plans with developer intelligence and government data enrichment are custom-quoted.