State's Property Rental and Eviction Law comes into effect today

Logo of the State Properties General Authority

The State’s Property Rental and Eviction Law and its executive regulations will come into force today, Feb. 2, the State Properties General Authority (SPGA) said.

In an emailed statement to Argaam, the SPGA said the new law and its executive regulations target ministries, public agencies and institutions, in addition to landlords or whoever has the right to rent property legally. 

The law aims to regulate real estate rentals by government agencies and rationalize rental costs. It also focuses on developing the exploitation of the rented property by government agencies, enhances governance and transparency principles with regard to real estate rentals by government agencies.

The law will introduce many positive impacts on investment in the real estate sector and raise the sector’s contribution to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP), the SPGA added.

The authority stated that the new law and the executive regulations also allow more flexibility in determining the duration of lease contracts that reach five years, renewable to up to 25 years, subject to the SPGA approval. It allows a duration of 50 years for real estate built on government land that the authority contracts with investors for investment projects.

The law also allows the rental of one property by many government agencies and permits these agencies to conclude lease contracts using the lease-to-own method after obtaining the approval of both the SPGA and the Ministry of Finance. 

In August 2022, a royal decree endorsed the State’s Property Rental and Eviction Law. The executive regulations was ratified by the SPGA, Argaam earlier reported.