Residence

RENTING AN APARTMENT:

One of the most important decisions that you have to make in Saudi Arabia is choosing a house for living.As you may know,its not possible for an expatriate to purchase a permanent property in Saudi Arabia,renting one is the only choice left.However if you have tons of money and have enough bucks to buy a villa or an apartment in Saudi Arabia,there are some housing schemes available which let you buy a house(typically a villa or an apartment) for your living time period in Saudi Arabia,Which you have to sell before your final exit from Saudi Arabia.One example of these housing schemes is Dar ul Arkan,which is one of the biggest residential schemes for expats and locals.

A typical two story apartment of Riyadh.

If you come to Saudi Arabia with a low or normal package,you have to rent a low fare apartment in a not very porche area (like Gobaira,Batha,Hara,Sawedi,Khaldiya,Manfouha,Azizya,Khashalila,Harage,Sanaiya),with a typical rent from 10,000 sar per year - 30,000 sar per year(of an apartment or a portion in a villa).But if you have a high package or get a decent residence allounce,you can probably rent a house in a porche area (like Malaz,Sulimaniya,Rawda,Olaya, etc) with a typical rent from 18000 sar per year till over 100,000 sar per year.In these porche areas,you can get an apartment,a villa,a portion of a villa,or a mansion(very rare).

Tips for Apartment rental:

• If you want to search for a vacant apartment, you can go to the residence section of https://www.expatriates.com/classifieds/riy/ ,ask a real estate person(known as akaria in Arabic), or ask your relatives or friends.
• As described in the above paragraph,first of all you should look at your budget,if you have a high budget,then you could go for the porche areas(described above),bigger apartments,villas or furnished apartments,However,if you have a low budget,then you have to look for not so porche areas,or smaller apartments.
• If you find a vacant apartment from any source and are going to check if its suitable for you,first of all you should check the nature of the owner (ask the people already living in his apartment or any property,ask the real state person(akaria) ).Because the nature of the owner of the place you are living in is very important in Saudi Arabia,if he is not good,then it can be a very big problem for you.
• Check all the aspects of the Apartment/Flat/Villa,check the washrooms,the kitchen,the kitchen ducts,room size,water supply,electrical supply,electrical sockets,check for any leakages,bugs check the floor,the location,the nearest prayer place (Mosques for muslim expats).
• Check out the nature of the other tenants,their nationalities,their religion,their habits and if you have a family,make sure there are no bachelors(singles) living in the apartment.
• Check for any nearby shops(bakalas),the bread shops(tandoor) or any or any other shops which you want to have nearby.
• Check if the front road of the apartment is not to busy,specially during the morning,because it can disturb your sleep.

For the exaptriates who come from europeon or american countries on high profile,there are compounds,which have the same exact environment of a typical europeon or American neighbourhood,which have a very high rent,they are discussed in the page "Compounds in Riyadh" of this blog.