Saudi Stock Windfall Seen by Tadawul CEO on Real Estate Tax - Bloomberg Business

Saudi Stock Windfall Seen by Tadawul CEO on Real Estate Tax - Bloomberg Business:



"Saudi Arabia’s stock market may benefit from funds seeking refuge from a land tax as share sales accelerate, the country’s bourse chief said.



The government’s plan to charge fees for undeveloped land may “trigger a flight of capital from real estate into the capital market,” chief executive officer of the Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul Adel Al-Ghamdi said in an e-mailed response to questions Tuesday. “We witnessed the beginnings of this only last week with $2.2 billion of prime real estate being sold off over two consecutive days.”



One of King Salman’s first policy decisions after taking power in January was to approve a tax on millions of acres of so-called white land: development plots in cities that lie empty for years because the owners have no incentive to build on them, the official Saudi Press Agency reported March 23. About 40 percent of the land in the capital, Riyadh, sits vacant, the Saudi Housing Ministry estimated in 2013."



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