Riyadh Rent Burden Drops to About 15% of Income

The share of income that households in Riyadh spend on rent has fallen to about 15%, down from more than 17.5% recorded in September 2025, marking an early measured effect of real estate market-balancing decisions and regulatory measures in the capital.

The drop of roughly 2 to 2.5 percentage points is drawn from rental data registered on the Ejar platform under the Real Estate General Authority (REGA). Before these changes, the most financially vulnerable households in Riyadh were spending more than 30% of their income on rent.

As of the fourth quarter of 2025, the average annual apartment rent in Riyadh stood at around SAR 31,014, or about SAR 2,584 based on registered rental transactions across 189 districts. Using that figure alongside an average monthly household disposable income of SAR 14,990 for the Riyadh region (2023 data), the implied rent burden was about 17% before the latest market-balancing impact brought it down to roughly 15%.

Citywide indicators are now aggregated from district-by-district data, following REGA's shift to publishing figures at the district level after the fourth quarter of 2024. The reported improvement is tied to market-balancing decisions that have been in place for more than a year and a half, rather than to any new fee or registration step for tenants or landlords.

For residents, the figures point to a gradual easing in the cost of housing relative to income across Riyadh as a whole. Individual experiences may still differ, as separate cost-of-living analyses show many residents paying rent-to-income ratios of 25% to 30% or higher. The 15% figure refers to the average measured burden for Riyadh households within the REGA framework, not to every household or expatriate segment.

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