A compliance clock is ticking for Saudi warehouses operators, as this week marks the expiration of a 180-day grace period for the Municipalities and Housing Ministry’s new technical standards (pdf) for storage facilities. Under the new standards, setting up new warehouses — as well as operating existing ones — will be required to meet risk-based safety and architectural requirements, raising the quality bar for the Saudi warehousing industry.

What’s in the law? Storage facilities are categorized by the risk level of their contents, with some labeled as medium risk (S1) and others as low risk (S2). Each classification has its own technical requirements, stipulating minimum square footage, ceiling height, and mandatory empty space between the warehousing facility and other property in the vicinity.

What does this mean for operators? The new standards — announced in late July 2025 — charge local municipalities to levy fees on non-compliant operators, who can face up to SAR 1 mn in fines as per the Municipal Violations Penalties law.

This can help spur demand for Grade A warehouses

Why does it matter? It could help spur supply in a market that is seeing unprecedented demand for high-quality warehousing, according to a Knight Frank report (pdf). This is especially evident in Riyadh, where severe shortage and high demand for space have pushed rental rates to historic highs in 1H 2025 — up 16% y-o-y to an average of SAR 208 per sqm. With occupancy hitting 98%, the shortage of premium space was further demonstrated by prime assets commanding rates in excess of SAR 250 per sqm.

The Saudi warehousing market is not “cost-sensitive,” unlike its counterparts in the region, and many “businesses are actually pausing their entry into Saudi because they refuse to settle for subpar Grade B assets,” Knight Frank’s Adam Wynne tells EnterpriseAM. By requiring new builds to meet higher standards and pushing existing operators to upgrade, the new standards could help Saudi meet the robust demand for high-quality, or what the industry calls Grade A, warehouses.

Other laws could also help address the supply gap

Enter the White Land Tax: In what could be an attempt to alleviate this demand pressure, the Saudi government rolled out the White Land Tax late last year, replacing the old 2.5% flat levy on idle lands in urban areas with a five-tier system that targets high-priority urban zones with annual fees as high as 10% of total land value.

What does this mean? For landholding families, holding idle land loses its traditional value for preserving wealth and becomes more of a financial liability, Wynne told us. “We’re seeing a lot of activity from local land-owning families who are looking to activate [their assets],” with many now carrying out due diligence and feasibility studies on how to best use the land, including by setting up high-quality storage, he added.

Specialization might be the name of the game: Local players face several options when developing storage facilities, with the most direct option being ambient, general warehousing. Given an asset’s specific qualities — like location — it may be more lucrative to establish specialized storage, Wynne said. In the long-term view, a specialized storage facility can differentiate itself in the years to come, as more and more warehousing spaces become available.

But it may not be so simple: The Saudi Food and Drug Authority rolled out new specifications for cold storage facilities last year, which similarly raise the bar for operators, according to the announcement (pdf). The authority mandated that all chilled and frozen food factories, warehouses, and their owned or contracted transport vehicles must link their temperature and humidity sensors to the Wasl platform starting last October.

Tags: