The remaking of Riyadh ahead of World Expo 2030

October 31, 2024, 8:02 AM

Saudi riyadh expo 2030 — The ongoing development of Diriyah in northwest Riyadh could contribute to moving the spotlight away from the Saudi capital’s traditional heart

City centre shifting to the north
Expo benefit of $95bn forecast
Construction push in Q2 2025

Expo 2030 is already propelling real estate development in Riyadh six years before the international fair is scheduled to take place – and, along with other giga-projects, is helping to shift the city’s core to the north.

The World Expo, which typically takes place in a different city every five years, is expected to occupy more than 6 million square metres in north Riyadh.

The site is a short drive from King Khalid International Airport, which is undergoing its own massive expansion to eventually become King Salman International Airport.

Dar Global, the London-Stock Exchange-listed arm of Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan, chose this site in September to make its debut in Saudi Arabia with a SAR880 million ($234 million) luxury villa project designed in partnership with Geneva and Dubai-based jewellery maker Mouawad.

The company said at the time that the project’s 200 villas are slated for handover by the end of 2026 and “will become one of Riyadh’s most prestigious addresses”.

The ongoing development of the Diriyah and New Murabba giga-projects, which aim to transform two areas in northwest Riyadh into thriving tourist, cultural, retail and lifestyle hubs, will also contribute to moving the spotlight away from the Saudi capital’s traditional heart.

Saudi Arabia wants King Salman International Airport to boost annual passenger numbers from the current 29 million to 120 million by 2030 — Once complete, King Salman International Airport is planned to boost annual passenger numbers from the current 29 million to 120 million by 2030

“What Riyadh is doing is interesting because if you look historically at the geography of the city, the main centre was always … you had Kingdom Tower, Faisaliah Tower and slightly to the north the King Abdullah Financial District,” says Dean Furey, head of Saudi real estate at UK-headquartered project management company Turner and Townsend.

“What’s happening now is Riyadh is growing its footprint and … shifting the centre of the city.”

Construction began this summer on Banan City, a gated community of 10 sq km and 20,000 homes in northeast Riyadh, close to the airport and Expo location, among other projects.

Furey agrees that “things are already moving” but says he expects the development push toward Expo 2030 to fully take off in the second quarter of 2025.

The Saudi capital won the rights to host the international fair a year ago and preparations for the event, as well as for the 2034 Fifa World Cup, are now driving outsized attention and funding, Turab Saleem, Saudi hospitality analyst at real estate consultancy Knight Frank, told AGBI in early October.

“The World Cup and World Expo were never in the plan. All of a sudden you wake up and find you have these wins,” he said back then. “So all the money has to go to Riyadh. Anything there is going to happen. It’s the best chance to show their muscle.”

Al-Rajhi Capital estimated in a report in December 2023 that Expo 2030 alone will have a total impact on the Saudi economy of SAR355 billion (nearly $95 billion), equivalent to a 19 percent increase to the kingdom’s non-oil GDP for that year.

“The development of a futuristic city and associated infrastructure, including exhibition spaces and pavilions, will drive a surge in construction activities,” the report argued, noting that the Saudi capital may need as many as 100,000 new hotel rooms to accommodate the 40 million expected visitors to the Expo.

According to Jason Prior, founder of London-based urban planning firm Prior and Partners, six years is plenty of time for Riyadh to get ready, “however messy” things may look now.

Prior is a veteran of several similarly sized global events, including the London Olympics of 2012, and notes that they typically act as “helpful accelerators” for a city’s ongoing development as they draw a “line in the sand” and “drive urgency” for authorities to act.

If there is anywhere in the world that can pull off Expo 2030 from scratch it’s Saudi Arabia, Prior says, just like Dubai managed to keep up an extraordinary pace of construction to deliver its own successful Expo in 2020.