Walk through Riyadh right now, and you will notice something that is hard to put into words: the city feels like it is in a hurry. Cranes on the horizon in every direction. New towers are going up in neighborhoods that were empty lots two years ago. Showrooms for off-plan developments on streets that did not exist five years back.
Saudi Arabia is spending money on property at a scale the world has not seen before. Knight Frank recently reported that contract awards across the kingdom’s major projects jumped 20 percent in 2025 alone, reaching $196 billion. That is not a typo.
But behind all these numbers are actual companies. Developers are making decisions, breaking ground, delivering units, and, in some cases, reimagining what a city can be. This article ranks the top 10 by total project value, with real figures, not fluff, and explains what each one is actually doing on the ground.
1. NEOM Company — $500 Billion+
Nobody expected NEOM to be a quiet affair. When Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced it in 2017, the world raised its eyebrows. A $500 billion city in the desert? Built from scratch? With no cars, no roads, and 9 million people living in a 170-kilometer-long mirrored corridor?
Eight years later, the eyebrows are still raised, but the cranes are real.
NEOM is not one project. There are several massive developments happening simultaneously on Saudi Arabia’s northwest coast. The Line has received $8.9 billion in construction contracts to date. Oxagon, the floating port city, has received $9.3 billion. Trojena, the mountain ski resort, has $3.31 billion committed. And Sindalah, a luxury island in the Gulf of Aqaba, actually opened to its first visitors in late 2024, making it the first piece of NEOM that anyone outside the project team can experience.
Yes, timelines have shifted. The Line will be closer to 5 kilometers complete by 2030, not the full 170. Budget pressures have led to recalibrations. But $24 billion in contracts have already been awarded across NEOM’s sub-projects, according to Knight Frank’s 2025 Giga Projects Report. That is not a project that is fading away; it is adjusting to reality while still moving forward.
At $500 billion in total announced investment, nothing else on this list comes close.
2. Diriyah Company — $63 Billion
Diriyah is, in many ways, the opposite of NEOM. Where NEOM is futuristic, Diriyah is ancient. Where NEOM conjures something that has never existed, Diriyah is bringing back something that was nearly lost.
The At-Turaif district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made from mud brick and built along the banks of Wadi Hanifah north of Riyadh, is where the Al Saud family established their first state in 1727. The Ottomans eventually destroyed much of it in the early 1800s. What remained sat largely untouched for nearly two centuries.
Now it is the centerpiece of a $63 billion development, one of the most expensive heritage projects ever undertaken anywhere.
The Bujairi Terrace restaurant district has been open since 2022. A Royal Diriyah Opera House is planned. A 1.9-kilometer central boulevard, described by the project’s CEO, Jerry Inzerillo, as a new Champs-Élysées, is under development. A modern art museum and sports stadium are in the pipeline. The project is targeting 27 million visitors a year by 2030.
As of 2025, commissioned contracts have crossed $14.5 billion, with $45.6 billion more in the pipeline. In 2024 alone, $5.9 billion worth of contracts were awarded. China Railway Construction recently picked up a $1.13 billion utilities contract, pushing total 2025 awards past $2.9 billion in just a few months.
Of all the projects on this list, Diriyah might be the one with the deepest emotional pull, both for Saudis and for visitors who care about what was here before the oil.
If you want a broader understanding of the region, explore our detailed breakdown of top real estate leaders in the GCC shaping the market in 2026
3. Red Sea Global — $28 Billion+
Most tourism developments follow a simple playbook: clear the land, build the hotels, bring in the tourists. Red Sea Global decided to write a different playbook.
This Public Investment Fund company is building two destinations on Saudi Arabia’s northwest coast, The Red Sea and AMAALA, and has committed to doing so without single-use plastic, running entirely on renewable energy, and actively restoring the coral reefs and mangroves in the area. Their coral nursery program is not a PR exercise; it is an operational part of the project.
The Red Sea welcomed its first guests in 2023. AMAALA, targeting the ultra-luxury wellness market, is opening fully in 2025. A third property, Thuwal Private Retreat, launched in 2024.
RSG’s project sits within the western Saudi development corridor, where 17 giga-projects collectively represent $431.3 billion in announced investment since 2016. Within that crowded field, RSG stands out because it has actually delivered guests, bookings, and reviews, not just renderings.
If you are an investor thinking about hospitality real estate in Saudi Arabia, RSG sets the bar for what premium sustainable development looks like in this market.
4. ROSHN Group — $38 Billion+
While NEOM and Diriyah chase global headlines, ROSHN is doing something arguably harder: solving Saudi Arabia’s housing problem.
Backed by the Public Investment Fund, ROSHN’s mission is to expand homeownership across the Kingdom and to do it in communities that feel genuinely liveable, not just liveable-on-paper. Its flagship project is Sedra in Riyadh: 20 million square meters, over 30,000 homes, walkable streets, parks, schools, and the kind of neighborhood design that is actually rare in large-scale Saudi residential development.
More recently, ROSHN announced Marafy, a mixed-use megaproject north of Jeddah built around Saudi Arabia’s first navigable canal. The canal is 11 kilometers long and 100 meters wide. Water taxis will connect it directly to King Abdulaziz International Airport. When completed, it will create a waterfront comparable in scale to those in Chicago and Hamburg.
ROSHN was also the first developer in the GCC to earn ISO 9001 certification for quality management and the first Saudi giga-project to join the United Nations Global Compact on responsible business. Those credentials matter because when you are building communities for hundreds of thousands of families, process discipline is not optional.
5. National Housing Company (NHC) — SAR 250 Billion+ (Approx. $66 Billion)
If ROSHN focuses on master-planned residential communities, NHC focuses on volume. And the numbers are staggering.
Construction Week Middle East named NHC the GCC’s number one real estate developer for 2024, and it earned that ranking the honest way. In just the first half of 2024, NHC recorded SR13 billion ($3.47 billion) in sales. It is working toward 300,000 delivered homes, with total development value exceeding SAR 250 billion. It manages nine suburbs and six residential districts across more than 100 million square meters.
During 2024, NHC executed 130 active projects simultaneously in partnership with private developers across the Kingdom. It has signed agreements with China State Construction Engineering Corporation to deliver 20,000 units with full supporting infrastructure, health facilities, schools, and commercial areas, built in from the start.
Beyond construction, NHC has planted over 800,000 trees across its developments in line with the Green Saudi Initiative, and its Waaed training program has already graduated 150 Saudi professionals, with 500 more enrolled in 2025.
This is the company that is quietly doing the most to help ordinary Saudi families own a home. That story does not always make the front page, but it matters more to daily life than most of the gigaprojects combined.
6. New Murabba Development Company — $50 Billion+
You have probably seen images of the Mukaab and done a double-take. It is a cube, 400 meters on each side, large enough to fit 20 Empire State Buildings inside it. Within its walls, New Murabba plans to create an immersive digital environment, hotels, residences, retail, and entertainment that together function as a neighborhood inside a building.
That is the centerpiece. Around it, the New Murabba project is developing a full urban district in the heart of Riyadh, with walkable blocks, parks, cultural spaces, and transport connections to the wider city. Total project value is estimated at over $50 billion, with delivery of the Mukaab and surrounding development targeted broadly for 2030 and beyond.
It is a long horizon. But it is also one of the most structurally significant projects for Riyadh’s long-term identity as a global city. If Diriyah is about where Saudi Arabia came from, New Murabba is a statement about where it is going.
These large-scale developments are part of a wider transformation led by industry pioneers. You can also explore the top real estate leaders driving GCC growth.
7. Qiddiya Investment Company — $8 Billion+ (Phase 1)
Qiddiya is 334 square kilometers of desert outside Riyadh, being turned into one of the largest entertainment destinations the world has ever seen. Sports, music, arts, culture, adventure – all of it under one massive development umbrella.
The anchor for global attention is the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium, which will feature a retractable roof and become a centerpiece of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup 2034 ambitions. Saudi Arabia is building or upgrading more than a dozen stadiums by 2032, with a collective value of $17.5 billion, and Qiddiya is ground zero for that effort.
Phase 1 facilities have been opening in stages since 2024. Major attractions are scheduled to be fully operational by 2027 and 2028. For property investors, the logic here is straightforward: entertainment infrastructure creates footfall, footfall creates demand for residential and commercial space around it, and that demand creates value. The residential and commercial ecosystem being built inside and around Qiddiya will follow the same pattern.
8. Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company — $5.27 Billion
Dar Al Arkan is the biggest name in Saudi private real estate that does not have PIF money behind it. Founded in 1994 and listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange since 2007, it has built a track record over three decades that earns it a place on this list regardless of how the giga-projects are ranked.
Total investments across completed, ongoing, and new projects stand at $5.27 billion. Projects under active construction in the last 12 months were valued at $1.27 billion.
What makes Dar Al Arkan interesting is the premium segment strategy. The company has partnered with Versace, Missoni, and Pagani on branded residences, products that appeal to buyers for whom a home is also a statement. Shams Ar Riyadh covers 5 million square metres in northern Riyadh with over 10,000 units and full lifestyle infrastructure. Al Qasr in central Riyadh offers luxury housing, offices, and green space. There is also a residential tower in Dubai bearing the Dar Al Arkan name.
It is not the biggest developer on the list. But in the luxury segment, it has built a reputation that others are still chasing.
Developments like Diriyah are also influencing investment trends across the region. See which markets are attracting capital in our guide to top GCC cities for real estate investment right now
9. Kingdom Holding Company — Multi-Billion Portfolio
Kingdom Tower needs no introduction in Riyadh. The 300-metre landmark with the iconic diamond-shaped hole at its peak houses a Four Seasons Hotel, one of the city’s best shopping destinations, and luxury apartments that overlook the entire capital. It has defined Riyadh’s skyline for nearly 25 years.
Kingdom Holding, chaired by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, goes well beyond that one building. Its most closely watched current project is the Jeddah Tower — set, when complete, to be the tallest building on earth at over 1,000 metres. Construction resumed in 2023 after a long suspension, and the company recently completed a $1.2 billion land transaction in Jeddah, a clear signal of its confidence in the western region.
Kingdom Holding runs a diversified real estate model, including hotels, investment properties, and landmark towers across multiple cities, which gives it more insulation from single-market swings than a developer relying on one major project.
10. Al Saedan Real Estate — SAR 20 Billion ($5.27 Billion)
Al Saedan does not build cities. It builds the kind of urban product – residential communities, commercial centres, logistics assets, and PPP projects – that a functioning city actually needs.
Total investments stand at $5.27 billion (SAR 20.05 billion), with $1.27 billion in projects actively under construction during the past year. It has earned both a national award for volunteering work in 2024 and a CSR Award in the residential sector, not because it spent money on PR, but because it has actually delivered on community commitments.
In a market where the headlines belong to giga-projects and futuristic skylines, companies like Al Saedan are easy to overlook. That would be a mistake. The mid-market residential and commercial segment is where the bulk of Saudi real estate transactions happen, and Al Saedan has positioned itself well inside that reality.
As residential demand grows, property management is becoming equally important for investors. Here’s a breakdown of top property management companies in Dubai
The Bigger Picture
Saudi Arabia’s construction output is forecast to hit $191 billion by 2029 – a 29 percent rise from 2024, driven by residential demand, ongoing mega-projects, and a genuine shortage of Grade A office space in Riyadh and Jeddah. The Kingdom’s non-oil economy grew 3.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2025. Riyadh alone has created 63 percent of all new Saudi jobs since 2019.
By 2030, giga-projects across the country are expected to have delivered more than 382,500 new homes, over 3 million square metres of office space, 4.3 million square metres of retail, and 330,000 hotel rooms.
These are not projections built on hope. They are backed by awarded contracts, delivered phases, paying guests, and completed handovers. Saudi Arabia’s property market has its challenges – budget constraints, contractor shortages, timeline adjustments – but the underlying direction is set.
The ten developers on this list are the ones moving the most weight. Whether you are looking to invest, looking to buy, or just trying to understand where one of the world’s most important economies is heading, these are the names worth knowing.
Source: Figures sourced from Knight Frank Saudi Arabia Giga Projects Report 2025, Arab News, Construction Week Middle East, and official developer statements. Project values reflect total announced investment and include phased delivery timelines.
