The government press conference held in Riyadh featured Minister of Municipal and Housing Affairs Majid Al-Hogail and Minister of Media Salman Al-Dosari, highlighting pioneering media achievements and comprehensive real estate initiatives aimed at restoring balance to the market and regulating rents in line with Vision 2030 goals.

Minister of Media Salman Al-Dosari revealed that Saudi Arabia topped the global cybersecurity index for the second consecutive year and noted the Human Rights Council’s unanimous adoption of the Crown Prince’s initiative to protect children in cyberspace. He also reported serious violations detected in the game “Roblox,” with the media authority imposing clear violation criteria, obliging the company to stop voice and text chats, and blocking over 300,000 violating games. He emphasized that “the best punishment for negative content is to ignore it and refuse to follow its creators,” noting that such content accounts for less than 1% compared to the dominance of positive content.

Regarding housing, Minister of Municipal and Housing Affairs Majid Al-Hogail explained that the Crown Prince’s directives aim to restore real estate balance. The ministry has lifted the freeze on land transactions north of Riyadh and other areas covering over 81 million square meters, announced geographic zones for targeted lands, fees, and registration deadlines before the end of October. Price stabilization is a strategy to ensure natural growth over the next five years, with supply being the basis for any increase. The new policies aim to reduce costs, encourage investment, and expand options for citizens and investors.

Al-Hogail also revealed that the “White Land Fees” system was approved ahead of schedule, with the lifting of the freeze on lands north of Riyadh expected to reshape the urban fabric. More than 117 projects have provided 88,000 housing units in the Kingdom, plus 60,000 rental units distributed across cities. The ministry is launching the “Build for Rent” program to increase available units and supporting low-income families to ensure their housing expenses do not exceed 30% of their income. These efforts, alongside new regulatory provisions, will regulate landlord-tenant relations and lead the market toward greater stability and fairness.

Abdullah Al-Hammad, Chairman of the General Real Estate Authority, confirmed that the rental market in Riyadh is not monopolized, with the city containing over one million rental units owned by about 200,000 owners, the largest holding no more than 0.4% of the market. He explained that rent increases are due to supply-demand imbalance and a shortage of real estate supply. The authority has developed a comprehensive balanced model to overcome the negatives faced by benchmark countries, with more programs and regulations planned to control the market and achieve stability.