White Land and Vacant Buildings: Saudi Fee Rules Compared

White-land fees and vacant-building fees sit under the same amended law, but their application tests and procedures differ. The vacant-property implementing regulations were published in Umm Al-Qura on 15 May 2026, together with the adoption decision. They should no longer be described as unpublished future regulations.

The next question is whether the actual city, geographical scope and property conditions have been brought within application. Publication of the framework and an individual owner’s liability are distinct events.

Distinguish vacant land from an occupiable building

The Law defines white land as vacant land capable of development or construction within the urban boundary. The vacant-property Regulations instead address buildings, including a separately usable or related part capable of occupation with a dedicated means of benefit and independently measurable occupancy.

Their liable-person definition includes the non-state owner and specified equivalents, such as a beneficiary under a documented usufruct during all or part of the reference year. The reference year is a Ministry-determined twelve-month period. Use is established from the competent authority’s planning records or occupancy certificate, rather than an owner’s preferred description.

The Law allows the Council of Ministers to increase the vacant-property ceiling to 10% on the ministerial committee’s proposal. That power is not itself a decision setting a 10% charge for an individual building.

References: Law Articles 1 and 3; White-Land Regulations Articles 6–7 and 13; Vacant-Property Regulations Articles 1–2, 6 and 15.

Check the market assessment and actual announcement

Vacant-Property Article 5 identifies the relevant geographical market indicators, including vacancy, housing cost relative to household income, property prices relative to the consumer-price index and the specified multiple-property vacancy measure. The technical parameters require the prescribed approval. Where an indicator is established, the Ministry monitors its continuation for at least twelve months before the stated announcement process.

Articles 6 and 9 then require the applicable ministerial decisions and announcement. The material includes the rate, uses, minimum property count, geographical map, reference-year start, disclosure window, portal and required ownership/property information. The announcement is published in the Official Gazette and designated portal.

Dariba analysis: a national publication date cannot supply a missing city map, property-count minimum or reference-year start. Conversely, a reader should not rely on an old statement that there is no regulation when an applicable announcement and decisions may establish liability. This guide does not certify the current announcement status of every city.

References: Vacant-Property Regulations Articles 5–6 and 9.

Apply the six-month vacancy test and all five conditions

Article 7 treats an urban building as vacant where it is not used or exploited for six months, consecutive or intermittent, during the reference year, subject to the stated power to amend the period with the required approval. The operative wording should not casually be changed to “more than six months” or “six consecutive months only”.

Article 8 additionally requires location within the announced scope; capability of occupation or the relevant occupancy certificate according to use/location; a use included in the decision; the applicable minimum number of vacant properties owned within scope; and failure to meet the prescribed minimum utility/service consumption for that use. The utility parameters require their own ministerial decision and approval.

These conditions work together. An electricity reading alone does not establish every other condition, and an advertised property is not automatically occupied. Dariba original illustration: three unused months followed by occupation and then three further unused months can meet the six-month duration limb within the same reference year. That assumed pattern does not itself prove the other eligibility, counting or utility conditions.

References: Vacant-Property Regulations Articles 7–8.

Distinguish comparable rent, the selected percentage and the value ceiling

Law Article 3(3) and Vacant-Property Article 6 use a percentage of comparable rent, subject to the property-value ceiling. Saying simply “5% of the property’s value is payable” omits the rent-based mechanism and the required rate decision. Saying simply “5% of annual rent” also confuses the mechanism with the capital-value ceiling.

Article 4 provides a technical committee of at least three members, including appropriately licensed valuers, to determine comparable rent and value under the approved criteria. These consider comparable market location, type and use and the city’s rental averages. Where a comparable building valuation is unavailable, the provision refers to land value by use and location. Do not substitute an owner’s asking rent or mortgage figure without testing the applicable assessment.

Dariba recommendation: show the assessed comparable rent, the actual selected percentage, the assessed building value and the ceiling check as separate entries. No universal rent percentage is invented in this guide.

References: Law Article 3(3); Vacant-Property Regulations Articles 4 and 6.

Disclose the building and recognise the specific stopping conditions

Article 3 requires disclosure according to the announcement, information from new owners on transfer under the prescribed mechanisms, and disclosure of the building’s status at least once in the reference year. The Ministry can request further evidence and inspect occupation or vacancy reasons.

Article 10 stops application where an eligibility condition ceases; a recognised occupation impediment exists without the person causing or participating in it; ownership transfers by sale under a statutory document; an occupancy certificate is issued during the reference year, subject to the stated prior full-electricity-release exception; or urgent, recognised reasons explain vacancy of a building registered as the person’s principal address with supporting evidence. The impediments list requires its specified ministerial decision and approval.

Sale and a new occupancy certificate therefore have carefully stated consequences. They are not an assurance that every transfer document erases an already issued invoice or that a building deliberately kept empty qualifies as a hardship case. Establish the reference year, relevant event and approved evidence.

References: Vacant-Property Regulations Articles 3 and 10.

Read notification, payment and objection dates precisely

Article 13 specifies invoice information, including the governing decision, rate, amount, payment date, issue date and objection right/period from notification. Article 14 validates the specified portal, verified mobile/email and registered-address channels. An unread message is not automatically ineffective notice.

Article 15 sets payment within six months from notification of an ordinary invoice. A previous-years invoice has its own ninety-day period from notification. Co-owners pay their respective shares. These are not the ordinary white-land one-year-from-issue rules.

Law Articles 7–8 provide the statutory objection committee and sixty-day filing period for the specified decisions; preserve the committee’s determination/deemed-rejection rules and applicable court route. Do not assume that an objection or disclosure automatically suspends payment. Article 12’s invoice-date alignment powers can also affect the specified adjustment period; check the actual decision where used.

References: Law Articles 7–8; Vacant-Property Regulations Articles 12–15.

Understand recovery, penalties and the limits of the analysis

Article 11 permits checks and recovery for relevant earlier years from when the property became subject to the applicable geographical decision; that does not eliminate possible penalties for payment or disclosure failures. Article 16 addresses notification, the separately approved violations/penalties schedule, collection and housing-project allocation. Articles 17–18 preserve inter-authority coordination and further implementation instructions.

The complete file should connect the person, property/use, announced scope, reference year, vacancy and utility evidence, count threshold, valuation, applicable percentage, stopping event, invoice and dispute dates. These are substantive parts of the conclusion, not merely administrative attachments.

For land rather than an occupiable building, use the white-land guide and development-extension analysis. This article explains the published framework; it does not invent missing city-specific decisions or certify a particular building’s present liability.