MULKIYA · GUIDES
What Foreign Buyers Pay: The 5% Tax, the 2.5% Cap, and the 2% Exit Fee
Buying costs are fixed by law: 5% transfer tax at purchase, brokerage capped at 2.5% only if you engage one, and a 2% fee on exit in four cities.
The 5% transfer tax at purchase
Every property transfer in Saudi Arabia carries a 5% Real Estate Transaction Tax, charged on the price. In law the tax is the seller's liability. In practice it is commonly priced into the deal, so the buyer funds it. The tax is collected through the official settlement flow at registration, so there is nothing separate to arrange and no way to defer it. On a SAR 2 million purchase, the tax is SAR 100,000.
Brokerage: capped, and only if you engage one
A broker's commission is capped by law at 2.5% of the price, plus 15% VAT on the commission itself. It is payable only when a broker is actually engaged, by whichever side engaged them. Buy direct from a developer and there is no brokerage line at all. Mulkiya is not a broker and never the seller. It takes no commission and no success fee, so your costs do not change because you came through the platform.
The 2% exit fee, in four cities only
When a foreign owner sells, two charges apply. The 5% transfer tax returns, because the seller is now the transferor. On top sits a 2% disposal fee for non-Saudi sellers, set by Article 9 of the Implementing Regulations. That fee applies only in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah. Everywhere else it is 0%. Some disposals are exempt entirely, including inheritance and court-ordered transfers.
What you should not expect to pay
The verified cost list is short, and older framings of it are wrong. Do not budget for a 10% all-in charge. That figure, from a superseded official Q&A, no longer holds. The all-in at purchase is the 5% tax plus, at most, a capped commission. On exit the 5% tax returns, plus 2% only in the four named cities. There is no confirmed schedule of fixed registry service fees in riyals, and exact fee amounts circulating on blogs are unverified.
A worked example
Take a SAR 2 million apartment bought direct from a developer inside a Riyadh zone. At purchase the 5% tax is SAR 100,000, priced into the deal, with no brokerage because no broker was engaged. Years later the owner sells at SAR 2.4 million. The 5% tax on the sale is SAR 120,000, plus the 2% disposal fee of SAR 48,000, because the property sits in Riyadh. The same property outside the four cities pays no disposal fee.
The honest next step
Costs are the easy part. Eligibility decides everything else: whether you may buy at all, and in which zones, turns on your nationality class, your residency status and, for Makkah and Madinah, one more question. Mulkiya's check asks five questions and returns a verdict from a deterministic rules engine, cited to Royal Decree M/14 and Council of Ministers Decision 43. Run it before you price a single property.
Who pays the 5% transfer tax, buyer or seller?
Legally the seller. In practice it is commonly priced into the deal, so the buyer funds it. Either way the same 5% is collected at registration through the official settlement flow.
Is the 2.5% brokerage fee mandatory?
No. It is a legal cap, not a fixed charge, and it applies only when a broker is engaged. Buy direct from the developer and the line disappears. VAT of 15% applies to the commission itself.
Do I pay the 2% exit fee anywhere in Saudi Arabia?
No. The non-Saudi disposal fee applies only in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah. Elsewhere it is 0%. Inheritance and court-ordered transfers are exempt.