Holo’s Shabab Al Qarni on technology and the changing Saudi property journey

Saudi property buyers are now looking beyond just the unit and are increasingly shopping for a masterplan. As Saudi Arabia builds out its smart cities and pushes the property transaction chain online, the questions a buyer needs answered before they sign have gotten considerably harder. Shabab Al Qarni (LinkedIn), general manager of Holo KSA, talks to us about how the definition of a good location is shifting, why more information hasn’t made buying any simpler, and what the next phase of digitization has to fix.

EnterpriseAM: How is smart-city development reshaping demand in the Saudi real estate market?

Shabab Al Qarni: Smart-city development is changing how buyers assess real estate in Saudi Arabia. The question is no longer just where a property is located, but what is being built around it — and how that location will evolve over time.

Infrastructure, mobility, connectivity, and access to services are becoming increasingly important in determining a property's long-term value and suitability. Buyers are therefore looking beyond the individual unit and considering the wider ecosystem they are buying into.

From where we sit at Holo, that makes access to information increasingly important. Buyers need a clearer picture of both the property itself and the development taking shape around it to make more informed decisions.

E: How are the priorities of Saudi property buyers changing as those cities come online?

SAQ: Price and location will always matter, but the definition of a good location is becoming broader. As the Kingdom develops more connected communities and invests in infrastructure and quality of life, buyers are increasingly looking beyond the property itself to the wider community — its accessibility, services, connectivity, amenities, and development potential.

Property decisions are therefore becoming more informed and complex. The question used to be “Can I afford this property?” Now, it’s: “Is this the right property and community for me?”

That’s where technology can play an important role. Nobody needs more information at this point — they need help working out which parts of it matter. That's the opportunity we're building for at Holo: getting a buyer through a more complicated market and still leaving them sure about the decision.

E: From search to ownership — how is technology changing the buying experience in the Kingdom?

SAQ: The market is digitizing fast. REGA has licensed 71 electronic real estate platforms, and its own ecosystem — the Real Estate Registry, Aqari, the Geospatial Real Estate Portal — has moved property information, registration and transactions online.

But digitizing individual steps only gets you so far. Searching, reading a community, comparing options, dealing with a developer, closing — to a buyer, these still feel like five separate processes. The job is to join them up, not to move each one onto a screen and call it progress.

The next phase of this will be judged on how much friction it strips out while keeping the human guidance people want when they're making the biggest financial decision of their lives. The Saudi buyer is more digital and better informed than they were five years ago. The businesses that win won't be the ones that digitized a transaction — they'll be the ones that helped someone make a better decision.