Riyadh
Knight Frank Actual Property Consulting stated that the opening of the Riyadh Metro had a optimistic impression on residential actual property values within the capital, as some villas close to the stations witnessed a rise in costs of as much as 78% in comparison with 2023.
She added in her analysis paper that the metro challenge achieved quick success, because the community of 6 strains and 85 stations transported greater than 100 million passengers in the course of the first 9 months of operation, which displays the robust demand for enhancing technique of communication and transportation inside the metropolis.
Knight Frank in contrast villa costs in three neighborhoods with completely different traits: Tuwaiq, Al Yarmouk and Al Malqa. In every case, properties positioned inside a 15-minute stroll of a metro station had been in contrast with these positioned additional away.
She defined that the direct impression on villa costs has already turn out to be clear, because the examine confirmed the existence of what’s often known as the metro premium. Within the Tuwaiq neighborhood, the worth of properties close to the station elevated by 20% between the second quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2025, in comparison with a development of 10% within the farthest areas.
She added that within the Yarmouk neighborhood, the impact was clearer, as costs close to the metro jumped by 78% in comparison with solely 22% within the peripheral areas. Even in Al Malqa, one among Riyadh’s most established neighborhoods, actual property values close to the metro rose by 20%.
Knight Frank estimated that about 1.5 million of Riyadh’s 8.3 million residents reside inside a 15-minute stroll of a metro station, equal to 18% of the town’s inhabitants, a big proportion for a newly opened transportation community, with roughly one in 5 folks benefiting from quick access from day one.
She acknowledged that present estimates point out that the metro will contribute to lowering about 250,000 automobile journeys per day, and saving about 400,000 liters of gasoline per day, which boosts its position in reaching sustainable city mobility.
She added that the growth plans, which embody a 65-kilometre hall for the seventh metro line linking Qiddiya, King Salman Park, Diriyah Gate, the New Sq., and King Khalid Worldwide Airport, will contribute to increasing the advantages of entry and sustainability, and opening new horizons for improvement within the capital.
She defined that the metro community supplies alternatives for builders and traders to create built-in city communities within the areas surrounding the brand new stations, and likewise supplies the opportunity of growing lands that had been beforehand thought-about distant or unattractive for funding.
She identified that the introduction of the metro in Riyadh, together with supportive modifications in land use, reminiscent of elevating the city density across the stations, may result in the emergence of dynamics just like transportation-oriented improvement. These dynamics embody a rise in foot visitors that helps retail commerce, the emergence of recent residential tasks centered across the stations, and a shift in residents’ preferences towards neighborhoods the place public transportation is offered.
She added that these results are step by step extending to neighborhoods that aren’t positioned inside a direct vary of the stations, because the metro can not function in isolation from different technique of transportation.
To realize most worth from it, it have to be supported by dependable means reminiscent of buses and improved pedestrian networks, as current passenger knowledge confirmed this interconnection, as buses throughout the Kingdom transported 23 million passengers within the first quarter of 2025, a rise of 34% in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2024.
She acknowledged that though the variety of bus passengers throughout the Kingdom decreased by 7% within the second quarter of the 12 months in comparison with the primary quarter, the numbers in Riyadh continued to rise, because the variety of passengers elevated from 15 million to fifteen.6 million.
