Apartment transactions dominate Saudi sales activity in the last 12 months, with villas a small share, May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026

In the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026, official Saudi sales transactions across all regions, all cities, villa and apartment, and the Apartment and Villa classification scope reached 146,831 transactions. That total translates into 438.3 transactions per day over the selected window, with a reported median price / m² of SAR 3,296.94. The picture is not one of even dispersion across property types. It is a market where apartment activity overwhelmingly sets the tone, while villas represent a comparatively small slice of completed sales. The transaction base is also strongly residential. Residential properties represented 89.55% of the selected scope in the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026, which helps frame the rest of the story: this is primarily a housing market, and within that housing market apartments are the dominant format by transaction count. For readers tracking liquidity rather than just price, that concentration matters. A market with this degree of apartment dominance tends to have its visible transaction momentum shaped by apartment turnover, not by villas.

Activity over the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026 moved through a fairly wide monthly range. The monthly series shows 17,525 transactions in May 2025, 10,742 in June 2025, and 19,017 in July 2025, before settling into a more moderate rhythm through late 2025 and early 2026. The lowest month in the series was March 2026 with 7,311 transactions, followed by a rebound to 11,753 in April 2026. That span illustrates a market that remained active throughout the selected period, even as monthly volumes varied materially. The value side of the transaction market moved alongside activity but not always in lockstep. Monthly total value reached SAR 19.64 billion in May 2025, SAR 17.28 billion in July 2025, and SAR 18.44 billion in December 2025, before easing to SAR 7.91 billion in March 2026. Because the scope includes apartments and villas across all regions and all cities, these monthly shifts should be read as broad market flow rather than a narrow submarket signal. The key point is that the transaction base remained consistently apartment-led throughout the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026, which gives apartments outsized influence over the market’s monthly rhythm.

The selected scope in the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026 recorded a median price / m² of SAR 3,296.94. Within the property-type mix, apartments posted a Median price / m² of SAR 3,334, while villas posted SAR 2,375. In other words, apartments were not only the dominant transaction type by count; they also carried a higher median price / m² than villas in the same period and scope. Monthly median price / m² levels in the series moved between SAR 815 in March 2026 and SAR 1,250 in October 2025, with several months clustered around SAR 1,000 to SAR 1,150. May 2025 came in at SAR 1,122.5, December 2025 at SAR 1,150, and April 2026 at SAR 946.5. Because this article focuses on the market structure of apartment concentration, the price series is most useful as a backdrop: it shows that the selected scope was active at a range of monthly price levels, while the apartment segment remained the central transaction engine in the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026.

The clearest story in the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026 is the concentration of sales activity in apartments. Apartments accounted for 141,157 transactions, or 86.09% of the selected scope. Villas accounted for 5,674 transactions, or 3.46%. That gap is large enough to define the market narrative: apartment transactions do not merely lead the mix, they dominate it. This concentration means that the overall transaction base is structurally tied to apartment activity. Any reading of market momentum, liquidity, or month-to-month change in the selected scope must therefore begin with apartments, because they form the overwhelming majority of completed sales in the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026. Villas remain part of the market, but their role in transaction count is much smaller. The mix also helps explain why the broad market’s median price / m² should be interpreted through the lens of apartment behavior rather than villa behavior, since apartments are the principal source of observed deal flow.

The geographic distribution in the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026 reinforces the same concentration theme. Among the top cities shown, Riyadh recorded 322,595 transactions, while Jeddah recorded 175,755. Other notable urban markets in the snapshot include Dammam with 42,521 transactions, Madinah with 53,771, Makkah with 52,191, and Buraidah with 65,587. These figures show that activity is not evenly spread; rather, it clusters around a few major urban centers. Price levels also vary by city in the selected scope and period. Dammam shows a Median price / m² of SAR 1,902.20, Jeddah SAR 1,800.80, Riyadh SAR 1,559.28, Makkah SAR 1,521.89, Madinah SAR 1,108.62, and Buraidah SAR 383.31. These are not direct substitutes for one another, but they do indicate that market value conditions differ meaningfully across cities while the transaction base remains concentrated in apartment-heavy urban markets. For this reason, the geography of the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026 should be read as a map of where apartment-led liquidity is strongest, not simply where housing exists.

The main takeaway from the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026 is structural concentration. The selected scope is not a balanced apartment-villa market; it is an apartment-led market with villas contributing a relatively small share of observed sales. That matters because the dominant property type shapes the market’s transaction profile, its monthly flow, and the reference point for pricing. Apartments account for 86.09% of transactions, villas for 3.46%, and the remaining market is therefore far more dependent on apartment behavior than on villa behavior. Within that structure, the price picture is straightforward: the overall selected scope posted a Median price / m² of SAR 3,296.94, apartments sat at SAR 3,334, and villas at SAR 2,375. The result is a market where the most frequently traded asset class also carries a higher median price / m² than villas in the same dataset. Combined with the city-level concentration in Riyadh and Jeddah, this suggests a housing market in which apartment turnover is the primary visible expression of sales activity across the period May 1, 2025 – Apr 1, 2026. For AlSafaqa readers, the implication is simple: any interpretation of Saudi residential sales over the last 12 months should start with apartments, because they dominate both the volume and the narrative of the market in the selected scope.