Real Estate App Development in Saudi Arabia: Scope, Cost and REGA Rules

A real estate listing and inquiry platform for Saudi Arabia costs roughly SAR 63,000 to 231,000 for a first release on our illustrative model: 420 to 770 hours at SAR 150 to 300 an hour. RAITHub's BlockEstate, a multi-tenant listing platform, reached MVP in 6 weeks. The Saudi-specific work is Arabic RTL and designing around REGA's FAL licences, Ejar leases and Wafi off-plan rules.

This guide is for PropTech founders, brokerages and developers planning a web platform for the Saudi market. RAITHub is a software studio in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It has no office in Saudi Arabia, is not registered with the Real Estate General Authority (REGA), and has not shipped an Ejar, REGA or Wafi integration. It builds web apps and PWAs, not native mobile apps. So read this as engineering guidance built from REGA's published pages. Everything about licences, leases and off-plan sales is general information, not legal advice; confirm it with a Saudi-qualified adviser.

What should a Saudi real estate app include in its first release?

One product type, its core workflow, and the regulatory references that product needs to carry. Most Saudi real estate platforms fall into one of four shapes, and each touches a different part of REGA's system.

Product	First-release scope	REGA touchpoint to design for
Listing portal or brokerage website	Listing intake, bilingual search, inquiries, agent accounts	FAL brokerage licences and real estate advertising licences
Brokerage CRM	Leads, routing, follow-ups, deal stages	FAL licence per broker; lease registration when a rental closes
Property management	Units, tenants, leases, rent schedules, maintenance	Ejar lease registration, renewal and termination
Developer off-plan sales	Unit inventory, reservations, buyer documents, payment plans	Wafi licensing and escrow rules

Pick one. A portal plus property management plus off-plan sales is three products, and each one alone is a sensible MVP. The wider build-versus-buy view is in the PropTech software development guide, and the marketplace mechanics are in how to build a real estate marketplace.

What do REGA, FAL, Ejar and Wafi mean for the software?

REGA is Saudi Arabia's real estate regulator, and it runs the platforms your product will sit next to. Its site lists Ejar, the Aqari app, FAL for brokerage, Wafi for off-plan sales, a real estate registry and advertising licensing (REGA). What each page says, checked on 30 September 2026, and what it suggests for a data model:

Platform	What REGA's page says	What to design for
FAL (brokerage)	The FAL licence is "an official permit that allows individuals and establishments to conduct real estate activities limited to the capacity of the license", including brokerage, marketing, property management and publishing electronic real estate ads. A separate advertising licence covers ads "by any means", including digital platforms and social media. The Real Estate Brokerage Law was issued by Royal Decree M/130 in 1443 AH (REGA: FAL)	Store the broker's licence number and the ad licence reference on every listing, and block publishing without them
Ejar (leasing)	Registers residential lease contracts and offers renewal, automatic renewal and termination for residential and commercial contracts. "The unified leasing contract contains mandatory articles that must be adhered to", and brokerage establishments register with Ejar (REGA: Ejar)	Store the Ejar contract reference against each lease, and model renewal and termination as states
Wafi (off-plan)	Licenses the sale of off-plan units and registers development companies. Developers need an escrow account agreement with a licensed Saudi bank, and reservation amounts collected during marketing may not exceed 5% of the unit value and must go into that escrow account (REGA: Wafi)	Route reservation money to the escrow account, never the platform's own account, and cap it in code

REGA's FAL page also lists licensed electronic real estate platforms. If your product publishes other people's listings, ask your adviser whether the platform itself needs a licence before you build, because the answer changes who your first customers can be.

A database rule makes the listing requirement impossible to skip. Which references are required is your adviser's call; the pattern is the same either way:

CREATE TABLE listings (
  id             bigserial PRIMARY KEY,
  agency_id      bigint NOT NULL REFERENCES agencies(id),
  title_ar       text,
  title_en       text,
  price_halalas  bigint NOT NULL CHECK (price_halalas > 0),
  fal_licence_no text,   -- broker's FAL licence, as your adviser specifies
  ad_licence_no  text,   -- REGA advertising licence reference
  status         text NOT NULL DEFAULT 'draft',
  -- No listing goes live without its licence references and Arabic title.
  CONSTRAINT publish_needs_references CHECK (
    status <> 'published'
    OR (fal_licence_no IS NOT NULL AND ad_licence_no IS NOT NULL AND title_ar IS NOT NULL)
  )
);

And for off-plan reservations, keep the cap in one tested function, with the source and the check date next to it:

// Wafi page, checked 30 Sep 2026: reservations during marketing are capped
// at 5% of unit value. Confirm the current rule with your adviser.
const RESERVATION_CAP_PERCENT = 5

export function maxReservationHalalas(unitPriceHalalas: number): number {
  if (!Number.isInteger(unitPriceHalalas) || unitPriceHalalas <= 0) {
    throw new Error('unit price must be a positive integer in halalas')
  }
  return Math.floor((unitPriceHalalas * RESERVATION_CAP_PERCENT) / 100)
}

Money is stored in halalas (1 riyal is 100 halalas) as integers, so a 5% cap on a SAR 850,000 unit is exactly 4,250,000 halalas, SAR 42,500, with no rounding drift.

How much does a real estate app cost in Saudi Arabia?

For a listing and inquiry platform with agency accounts and a bilingual interface, 420 to 770 hours on the illustrative model below. The rates are SAR 150 and SAR 300 an hour, about $40 and $80, inside the bands most Saudi-listed developers charge on Clutch's Saudi Arabia list ($25 to $49 and $50 to $99, checked on 30 September 2026). The hours are an assumption to show how a budget adds up, not a quote.

Module	Hours (illustrative)	At SAR 150/hour	At SAR 300/hour
Listings: bilingual fields, photos, moderation, licence references	80 to 140	SAR 12,000 to 21,000	SAR 24,000 to 42,000
Search, filters and map	70 to 120	SAR 10,500 to 18,000	SAR 21,000 to 36,000
Inquiries and lead routing to agents	50 to 90	SAR 7,500 to 13,500	SAR 15,000 to 27,000
Agent and broker accounts, licence fields	30 to 60	SAR 4,500 to 9,000	SAR 9,000 to 18,000
Multi-agency isolation (each agency sees only its data)	40 to 80	SAR 6,000 to 12,000	SAR 12,000 to 24,000
Document workflow	30 to 60	SAR 4,500 to 9,000	SAR 9,000 to 18,000
Admin panel	40 to 80	SAR 6,000 to 12,000	SAR 12,000 to 24,000
Arabic RTL layout and bilingual QA	80 to 140	SAR 12,000 to 21,000	SAR 24,000 to 42,000
Total	420 to 770	SAR 63,000 to 115,500	SAR 126,000 to 231,000

Not included: map and geocoding usage fees, hosting, translation, and licence or government fees. Property management (leases, rent schedules, Ejar references) or off-plan inventory with payment plans is a second product and roughly a second budget of similar size. For sourced global ranges by platform type, see what it costs to build a real estate platform; for your own scope, try the MVP cost estimator.

Can my software integrate directly with Ejar?

Plan as if it cannot until Ejar confirms otherwise in writing. REGA's Ejar page describes registration, renewal and termination services, but it does not describe a public API for third-party software. Ask REGA or Ejar directly whether an integration route exists for your type of company, and what it requires.

Until then, design so that adding one later is cheap:

1. Keep your lease and the Ejar contract separate. Your lease has its own lifecycle; the Ejar registration is a reference that follows it.
2. Store the Ejar contract number and its status against the lease, entered by the broker or manager after registering in Ejar, with who entered it and when.
3. Put an adapter in front of it. Today the adapter records a manual entry and sets a reminder; tomorrow, if an integration becomes available, it calls Ejar. Nothing else in the product changes.
4. Remind before renewal dates, because renewal and termination are the moments a stale reference causes trouble.

Do not confuse Ejar with Ejari. Ejari is Dubai's tenancy registration system, run by the Dubai Land Department, and it has a published API gateway. The adapter pattern in building a UAE real estate platform carries over; the Dubai rules do not.

What did BlockEstate's 6-week MVP include?

BlockEstate is a multi-tenant listing and inquiry platform for agents and brokerages that RAITHub built, and it reached MVP in 6 weeks. The first release covered listing intake, agent dashboards, lead routing and a document workflow, on Next.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Prisma, S3 and Resend. See the BlockEstate case study.

What it shows for a Saudi build:

• The listing-portal row of the scope table fits in about 6 weeks when the scope is held to one workflow.
• Agency isolation is designed in, not added. Each brokerage is its own tenant, so one agency never sees another's leads.
• Lead routing is where portals earn their keep. The patterns are in real estate CRM for agents: build vs buy.

What it does not show: RAITHub makes no Saudi delivery claim for BlockEstate, and it has no MLS integration. REGA licence fields, Ejar references and Arabic RTL would be added scope in a Saudi version, and are costed in the table above.

Which payments does a Saudi real estate platform need?

It depends on the money flow, and some flows are not yours to hold. mada is the Saudi Central Bank's national payment system (SAMA: mada), and you reach it through a gateway. Checkout.com, for example, notes that mada must be captured in full, with no partial captures (Checkout.com: mada).

Money flow	Engineering point	Question for your adviser
Listing or subscription fees from agencies	Ordinary card billing; invoices with VAT shown	How is VAT applied to platform fees?
Off-plan reservations	Payment goes to the developer's escrow account; your platform records it and enforces the cap	Can the platform take payment at all, or only link to the bank?
Rent	Match each payment to a lease and instalment; reconcile against settlement reports	Can the platform collect on the landlord's behalf?
Brokerage commission	Record the deal, the split and the invoice; do not hold client money	What does the brokerage agreement allow?

Whatever the provider, the patterns are the same: the webhook is the source of truth, every handler is safe to run twice, and money is stored as integers. RAITHub shipped Stripe rent collection in PropDesk, which runs 1,024 automated tests; it has not shipped mada or Saudi gateway integrations, so those would be quoted as new work. How to test the flows is in testing payments and webhooks end to end.

Can an offshore team build a Saudi real estate platform?

Yes, for the web platform, if the set-up is right. Riyadh is UTC+3 and Dhaka UTC+6, so a 9:00 to 18:00 day in each city shares about 6 hours. The working week is agreed per client, so a Sunday to Thursday week can be accommodated. Daily written handoffs cover the rest.

Three things to settle first:

• Personal data. Buyer and tenant records hold names, ID numbers and contact details. How Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law applies, where that data may be hosted and who may access it are questions for your adviser; the regulator is the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA). A common engineering answer is to deploy into a cloud account you own and give the offshore team synthetic data. RAITHub signs DPAs and follows your controls; it makes no PDPL compliance claim.
• Arabic content. RAITHub delivers in English. It builds and tests the Arabic RTL interface, but listing copy, legal text and its review come from your team or a translator.
• Regulatory accounts. Any REGA, FAL or Ejar account belongs to your licensed company, never to the developer.

Why RAITHub for this?

• Two shipped PropTech platforms. BlockEstate (multi-tenant listings, lead routing, documents, MVP in 6 weeks) and PropDesk (property management, Stripe rent collection, 4 roles, 1,024 tests). The listing, lease and permission patterns a Saudi platform needs are the ones already built.
• Regulatory references as data rules. Licence numbers, lease references and reservation caps become database constraints and tested functions, not reminders in a manual.
• Honest about the gap. No REGA, Ejar or Wafi integration has shipped, and there is no Saudi office. Those parts are scoped openly as new work.
• Fixed scope. A free 15-minute technical audit, then a written fixed quote. You own the code and IP; an NDA is standard.

When you don't need us

• You need a vendor with shipped Ejar or REGA integrations, or one registered in the Kingdom for a government-facing contract.
• You need native iOS and Android apps. RAITHub does not offer mobile-app development.
• You need Arabic delivery, on-site workshops in Riyadh or Jeddah, or Arabic content written for you.
• An existing Saudi property product already fits. Configuring it will be quicker and cheaper than building.
• You need advice on brokerage, leasing or off-plan law. That is for a Saudi-qualified adviser, not a software studio.

The real estate industry page covers what RAITHub builds, and the MVP development service covers how a fixed-scope first release works. When you are ready, book the free 15-minute technical audit and bring your product type, the REGA touchpoints your adviser has confirmed, and whether your Arabic copy is ready.

Last reviewed: 30 September 2026. REGA pages, rates and provider documentation checked on 30 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to build a real estate app in Saudi Arabia?

A listing and inquiry platform with agency accounts and an Arabic interface comes to roughly SAR 63,000 to 231,000 on an illustrative model of 420 to 770 hours at SAR 150 to 300 an hour. Property management or off-plan sales modules are a second budget of similar size.

How long does it take to build a real estate MVP?

A single-workflow listing platform can reach MVP in about 6 weeks; RAITHub's BlockEstate did. Arabic RTL, licence references and a second workflow such as leasing add time, so fix the scope in writing before the build starts.

Does a Saudi property platform need to connect to Ejar?

If it manages leases, it should at least store the Ejar contract reference and track renewals and terminations. REGA's Ejar page does not describe a public API, so ask REGA or Ejar about an integration route and design an adapter so one can be added later.

What is a FAL licence, and why does my app care?

REGA describes the FAL licence as the permit for real estate activities such as brokerage, marketing and property management, and it also issues advertising licences for ads on digital platforms. A listing platform should store those references and refuse to publish without them. Confirm which apply with your adviser.

What does Wafi mean for off-plan sales software?

Wafi licenses off-plan sales. REGA's page says developers need an escrow account with a licensed Saudi bank, and reservations during marketing may not exceed 5% of unit value. Software should route reservations to escrow and enforce the cap. This is general information; confirm with your adviser.

Has RAITHub built a Saudi real estate platform?

No. RAITHub's PropTech proof is BlockEstate and PropDesk, with no Saudi delivery claimed. It has no Saudi office and has not shipped an Ejar, REGA or Wafi integration; those would be scoped as new work.