Article 6 of the Saudi Off-Plan Real Estate Sales and Leasing Law

This article governs the application for the special license of the real estate project. A developer who wishes to sell or lease off-plan submits the application to the competent authority after its name has been entered in the developers registry, together with documents, the most important of which are:

• A valid commercial register permitting real estate development activity, a chamber of commerce membership certificate, and a copy of the credit record from a licensed company.
• A valid building permit, a valid title deed for the property to be developed, the agreement with the landowner or the owner of its usufruct, and the agreement between the main developer and the sub-developer, if any.
• The approved architectural designs and engineering plans, and the contracts with the consulting office and the certified accountant.
• An economic feasibility study from a consulting office including the estimated costs, the items of expenditure, the cash flow and the expected duration of execution.
• An undertaking to begin construction work within 6 months of obtaining the license.
• A model sale contract with the buyer in which the delivery dates of the sold property are specified to the day, not conflicting with the provisions of Islamic Sharia.
• An agreement to open an escrow account with a bank licensed in the Kingdom.

The competent authority may add or amend some of the conditions.

Period for decision: The authority decides on the application within 30 days of the date the documents are completed, and if the period passes without a decision, that is deemed approval. If it rejects the application, its decision must be reasoned. The authority also sets the conditions for approving the project at all its stages, and the Implementing Regulations set them out.

This complements Article 5 on the real estate broker's agreement, and Article 7 follows to regulate the registration of a natural person under special rules.