New Murabba — The World’s Largest Modern Downtown
New Murabba aims to create the world’s largest modern downtown — 14 square kilometres encompassing 18 communities with a population capacity exceeding 400,000. With 104,000+ planned residential units, 9,000 hotel rooms, and 980,000 square metres of retail space, New Murabba represents the most ambitious urban creation project in Riyadh and perhaps globally. Knight Frank estimates the development value at USD 50 billion, positioning New Murabba as one of the most valuable single real estate projects ever conceived.
The scale demands context. New Murabba’s 104,000+ residential units would constitute approximately one year of the Kingdom’s estimated 115,000 annual housing demand. Its 14 square kilometres exceed the footprint of many global city centres — Monaco’s entire territory is 2.02 square kilometres, Manhattan’s Midtown is approximately 7 square kilometres. The development’s 18 distinct communities are not neighbourhoods within a project; they are effectively 18 coordinated urban districts that collectively form a new city centre for a capital already home to 7+ million residents.
Within the broader giga-project portfolio — USD 1.3 trillion combined allocation across NEOM, Red Sea, Diriyah, Qiddiya, and New Murabba — New Murabba occupies a distinct position. Unlike NEOM’s remote northwestern location or Qiddiya’s entertainment-focused suburban positioning, New Murabba is sited in northern Riyadh within the capital’s urban expansion corridor. This location means New Murabba does not need to create demand from scratch — it taps into the existing demographic pressure of a rapidly growing capital where Riyadh commands 41.5% of the national real estate market.
Residential Scale — 104,000+ Units Across 18 Communities
The 104,000+ residential units planned for New Murabba dwarf any single residential development in the Kingdom’s history and rank among the largest residential projects globally. The distribution across 18 distinct communities enables differentiated positioning — different communities can target different buyer demographics, income levels, and lifestyle preferences without creating a monolithic product that floods a single market segment.
Housing typologies span from apartments suitable for young professionals (Saudi Arabia’s population skews young — 45% of nationals under 20, 63% under 30, and household sizes are shrinking) to family homes designed for the multi-generational living arrangements that remain culturally prevalent. This range addresses the Kingdom’s documented housing gap: apartments priced USD 133,000-400,000 represent 72% of unmet housing demand according to Mordor Intelligence and Deloitte analysis.
Integrated community infrastructure — schools, healthcare facilities, retail corridors, public parks, and recreational amenities — is planned within each of the 18 communities, creating self-sufficient neighbourhoods rather than dormitory districts. This planning approach recognises that residential units without supporting infrastructure create dormitory developments, not communities. The 980,000 square metres of retail and 9,000 hotel rooms provide the commercial and hospitality infrastructure that makes a downtown function as a destination rather than merely a residential address.
First residential phases are expected around 2027-2028, providing early residents with access to the development as subsequent phases build out. These early buyers accept the trade-off of living within an active construction zone in exchange for entry pricing that reflects the pre-completion risk discount — a discount that diminishes as subsequent phases deliver and the development’s character becomes established.
The metro connectivity via the 65-kilometre line linking New Murabba to Diriyah Gate, King Salman Park, Misk City, and Qiddiya provides the transit spine that makes a car-reduced lifestyle viable within the development, differentiating New Murabba from conventional car-dependent Riyadh residential areas.
Revised Timeline — From 2030 to 2040
The completion timeline has been pushed from an original 2030 target to 2040, representing a full decade of extension that reflects both fiscal prudence and the practical reality of building a city-within-a-city. The revised phasing now aligns with major events that provide natural delivery milestones and demand catalysts:
- Phase 1 — Expo 2030: Initial infrastructure, residential phases, and public realm targeting readiness for Riyadh’s hosting of Expo 2030, creating a showcase moment for New Murabba’s concept and a deadline-driven delivery motivation
- Subsequent phases — FIFA 2034: The Kingdom’s hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2034 provides a second major event milestone, with New Murabba positioned as both accommodation and destination infrastructure for the tournament
- Full completion — 2035-2040: Final residential, commercial, and institutional phases completing the 14 square kilometre development footprint
The extended timeline is pragmatic for multiple reasons. Riyadh’s current residential stock of approximately 1.4-1.5 million units (within the national total of 3.5 million across five major cities) cannot absorb 104,000 new units in a compressed timeframe without severe price disruption. The phased approach allows market absorption over 12-15 years, maintaining supply-demand equilibrium. The timeline also distributes capital expenditure across a longer period, reducing the annual fiscal burden during a period when Saudi breakeven oil price exceeds USD 90/barrel and Brent trades at USD 60-65.
For investors, the extended timeline introduces uncertainty but also opportunity. Early-phase units purchased at pre-completion pricing may appreciate significantly as the development matures, surrounding infrastructure activates, and market confidence builds. Late-phase units offer lower risk (proven concept, established community) but higher entry pricing and lower appreciation upside.
Construction Progress — From Vision to Earthworks
As of September 2025, construction progress at New Murabba is demonstrably underway at scale:
- 40 million cubic metres excavated — a volume equivalent to filling approximately 16,000 Olympic swimming pools, confirming that site preparation has progressed far beyond groundbreaking ceremonies into serious earthworks
- 1,000 of 1,200 construction piles installed — 83% completion of the foundation piling programme, indicating that the below-ground structural preparation phase is nearing completion and above-ground construction can begin
These figures confirm that New Murabba has moved beyond planning, environmental assessment, and design into active site preparation. The earthworks and piling represent irreversible physical commitment — USD 50 billion in project value (Knight Frank estimate) is transitioning from balance sheet allocation to physical infrastructure.
However, above-ground construction — the towers, residential buildings, retail corridors, and public spaces that buyers will actually inhabit — remains largely ahead. The piling completion creates the foundation for vertical construction, but the visible transformation from construction site to habitable district lies in subsequent phases. Prospective buyers should calibrate expectations accordingly: first residential delivery in 2027-2028 requires that above-ground construction begin at pace following piling completion.
The Mukaab — Deprioritised Centrepiece
The Mukaab — New Murabba’s signature cube-shaped structure that was to serve as the development’s iconic centrepiece and global architectural landmark — has been deprioritised. Construction has been suspended following re-evaluation of financial viability.
The Mukaab’s suspension reflects the broader fiscal recalibration across PIF giga-projects following the December 2024 spending reduction mandate. Iconic structures — while generating global media attention and architectural prestige — consume disproportionate capital relative to their revenue-generating capacity. The Mukaab’s construction cost, estimated in the billions, would deliver a single structure; the same capital redirected to residential and commercial buildings delivers habitable, revenue-generating square metres.
While the Mukaab’s architectural ambition generated global attention and positioned New Murabba as a conceptually bold project, its deprioritisation suggests a pragmatic reorientation: delivering habitable residential and commercial space takes priority over architectural iconography. For residential buyers and investors, this reprioritisation is arguably positive — capital directed toward the 104,000 residential units, community infrastructure, and commercial spaces directly enhances the livability and value of the development, while an iconic but uninhabitable centrepiece contributes primarily to brand identity.
Impact on Riyadh’s Market Dynamics
New Murabba’s 104,000 residential units represent the single largest planned addition to Riyadh’s supply pipeline. Understanding the market impact requires analysing both the supply addition and the demand context.
Supply context: Riyadh’s current annual delivery of new homes is approximately 22,800 units (2025 data), with 105,000 additional homes planned across Saudi Arabia for 2026-2027. New Murabba’s 104,000 units, delivered over 12-15 years from 2027-2040, would add approximately 7,000-8,700 units annually — a 30-38% increase to Riyadh’s annual delivery rate. This increment is significant but absorbable within the context of annual housing demand of 115,000+ homes nationally, with Riyadh accounting for 41.5% of the national market.
Demand context: Riyadh’s population growth (the city targets 15 million residents by 2030, up from approximately 7.5 million), the 600+ multinational RHQ establishments bringing senior executives and their families, and the foreign ownership law effective January 2026 opening the market to international buyers all support sustained demand. The homeownership rate, climbing from 47% in 2016 to 65.4% in 2024 with a 70% target by 2030, drives domestic acquisition activity.
Pricing impact: The extended timeline mitigates oversupply risk — rather than delivering a massive supply shock, the phased approach allows market absorption and price adjustment. Riyadh’s 10.6% year-on-year price growth provides a strong baseline, though investors monitoring price trends and transaction volumes should track New Murabba delivery schedules as a key supply indicator. The luxury market’s appreciation trajectory — +17.7% (2022), +8.6% (2023), +8.6% (2024), +4.3-5.1% (H1 2025) — suggests moderating but sustained growth that can accommodate gradual supply additions.
Northern Riyadh Development Corridor
The metro connectivity linking New Murabba to Diriyah Gate, King Salman Park, Misk City, and Qiddiya creates a northern Riyadh development corridor that may reshape the capital’s residential geography over the next decade. This corridor concentrates the Kingdom’s most significant residential investments along a single transit spine, creating a cumulative infrastructure investment that enhances property values along the entire route.
Properties within this corridor benefit from the collective amenity value of heritage tourism (Diriyah), nature-integrated recreation (King Salman Park), entertainment (Qiddiya), and urban commercial density (New Murabba). No single project delivers all these lifestyle components; the metro-connected corridor delivers all of them collectively.
Expo 2030 and FIFA 2034 — Event-Driven Catalysts
The alignment of New Murabba’s phased delivery with Riyadh’s Expo 2030 hosting and Saudi Arabia’s FIFA 2034 World Cup creates event-driven demand catalysts that few residential developments globally can leverage. Major international events generate accommodation demand spikes, infrastructure acceleration, and global visibility that directly benefit proximate residential developments.
Expo 2030 is expected to attract millions of visitors to Riyadh over its six-month duration, creating temporary accommodation demand that New Murabba’s 9,000 hotel rooms and early residential phases can serve. The preparation period preceding Expo 2030 will accelerate infrastructure delivery — roads, utilities, public transport, landscaping — that permanently benefits residential property values within and adjacent to New Murabba.
FIFA 2034 provides a second event-driven catalyst approximately four years later, sustaining the infrastructure investment momentum and global attention that Expo 2030 initiates. New Murabba’s sports and entertainment amenities may host FIFA-related events, visitor centres, or fan zones, creating temporary activity spikes that demonstrate the development’s capacity for large-scale event hosting.
For residential investors, event-driven catalysts provide both exit timing opportunities (selling during peak attention periods when buyer demand is elevated) and rental income spikes (short-term rental premiums during event periods). Properties acquired before event preparation begins and held through the event itself typically capture the maximum appreciation from the event-driven premium.
International Buyer Opportunity
The foreign ownership law effective January 2026 positions New Murabba as an accessible entry point for international buyers seeking Saudi real estate exposure. The development’s scale (104,000+ units), typological diversity (apartments through family homes), and price range (spanning mid-market through premium) create a broader entry point than ultra-luxury developments like Diriyah branded residences, which are limited to UHNWI buyers.
International institutional investors — investment funds, family offices, and real estate platforms — may find New Murabba’s scale particularly attractive for portfolio-scale acquisitions. The 18-community structure allows investors to build concentrated positions within specific communities while maintaining diversification across the broader development.
Investment Framework
New Murabba investment operates on a long-cycle appreciation thesis: acquire early-phase units at pre-completion pricing, hold through the development’s maturation, and benefit from the transition from construction site to functional downtown. Riyadh apartment rental yields of 8-12% gross provide income during the holding period, while capital appreciation — supported by Riyadh’s 10.6% annual price growth and the development’s unique scale proposition — provides the primary return driver.
The 5% RETT, 20% income tax on net rental earnings, and absence of recurring property taxes apply. The five-year rent freeze through September 2030 caps existing lease increases; new units entering the market can set initial rents at prevailing levels. Mortgage financing availability — total real estate loans reached SAR 951.3 billion by year-end 2025, with mortgage financing growing 28.3% annually — supports domestic buyer participation.
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