Article 1 of the Saudi Real Estate Registration Law

This article is the "dictionary" of the Law: it explains the meaning of words that recur in the rest of its articles, and these meanings apply wherever the words appear unless the context requires another meaning. The most important are:

• Real property: A plot of land and what is beneath it, above it and on it, whether buildings or fixed appurtenances, crops, factories, or facilities such as ports, airports, electricity lines and pipelines; excluded are natural resources and airspace not permitted to be built on and exploited.
• Real property right: A direct authority recognized by the Law for one or more natural or legal persons over a specific piece of real property, entitling them to dispose of it or to hold exclusively its benefits or some of them.
• The real estate register: A set of documents showing the description of the property, its location, its physical and legal condition, the rights and obligations attached to it, and the changes that occur to them.
• In rem registration: Registration in which the property itself, not the person's name, is the basis on which rights are recorded.
• First in rem registration: Registering the property in its owner's name for the first time in the real estate register.
• Real estate zone: A location of land determined by the competent authority by decision, and subject to the provisions of the Law and the Regulations.
• Title registration deed: A document issued from the real estate register matching its data, containing the property's location, boundaries, description and use, the rights and obligations attached to it, the owner's details, and any other details set by the Regulations.
• The map: A survey engineering drawing based on a national coordinate system showing the property's location, boundaries, features, numbers and area.
• Owner: The person in whose favor the real estate register establishes the right of ownership of the property.

The article also states that the competent authority is the body designated by a decision of the Council of Ministers, and that the fee is the amount due in return for in rem registration services. Understanding these definitions is necessary for reading the rest of the articles, including Article 2, which makes the Law apply to all real property in the Kingdom.