Most buyers ask one question before anything else: what's the price per metre in this district? The answer they usually get is a single number — and that is the first mistake in the deal.
In a single district like Al Malqa we recorded 2025 deals ranging from SAR 4,900 to 8,600 per metre. The spread isn't seller whim — it comes from four measurable factors you can verify yourself before paying a deposit.
What price-per-metre is made of
The advertised figure is the total price divided by plot area. But it blends building value with location value, which is why it cannot be used to compare a plot holding a two-year-old villa against an empty one.
Street width and plot depth
Two plots of equal area, one on a 15-metre street and one on 25 metres: the gap in price per metre reached 9% in Al Malqa deals last year. A deep, narrow-frontage plot prices lower because any villa design on it wastes area.
Our working rule: only compare price per metre between two plots on streets of the same width and roughly the same depth.
Build year and finish level
When a plot carries a building, the price per metre includes what stands on it — and that part ages. Land holds or gains value; a building loses some every year, and a finish that is fifteen years old is priced by buyers as renovation work, not as a feature. In our valuations we separate the two: we price the land from comparable empty-plot deals on the same street, then value the building on its age, the condition recorded in the inspection report, and the cost of bringing its finish up to today's standard.
That is why a new villa selling next door at a given price does not mean yours is worth the same per metre — and why an older villa on a wide street can still be the better purchase: most of what you pay for it is land, and land is what holds its value.
How to compare two plots
Before comparing two prices, put both plots on the same basis. This is the short sequence we follow in every valuation:
A corner plot on two streets, or one facing a park, will still carry a premium that no formula fully captures. That is where registered deals on the same street matter more than any district average.
Practical takeaway
Ask your broker for three registered deals on the same or the neighbouring street within the last six months. If none exist, the price you have been quoted is an estimate with no reference — reason enough to negotiate.