The vision
But look beyond the sovereign ambition and scale of the project - nearly the size of the city of Geneva at 14.5 square kilometres - and you see a story of opportunity across hotels, branded residences, retail, F&B, homes and wide-ranging infrastructure intended to make the project a standalone destination for people to live, work and play.
“We’re developing 18,000 residential units, we have 450 retail and F&B units, major office buildings, ultra-luxury hotels, branded residences, a grand mosque, schools, hospitals as well as cultural institutions which will be operated side by side with international accrediting bodies,” says Nawaf Rajeh, development & innovation marketing executive director at Diriyah Company.
The underlying thesis is that heritage, when paired with modern placemaking, can be monetised at scale. And with construction happening 24/7, with more than 55,000 workers on site each day, the bet is already being executed in locally produced mud brick and high-tech systems.
Below the sandstone façades and lantern-lit streets sits one of the most complex subterranean networks in the region. Three underground levels now host tunnels, road systems, utilities and parking intended to remove vehicles from the surface almost entirely.
“In At-Turaif, the historic city, horses and carriages never entered the urban core. The city was 100 per cent walkable. We’re honouring that tradition and scaling it,” Rajeh says.
Hospitality to attract demand
And that walkability is a commercial strategy in an environment - full of restaurants, hotels and retail clusters - that relies on slow movement to drive spend per head and length of stay. Below ground, the tunnel network and metro stations (three already “boxed out” in the concrete) quietly absorb traffic, improving access while preserving atmospherics.
Diriyah’s first operational win came in late 2024, with the opening of Bab Samhan, a 134-key Luxury Collection property operated under the Marriott umbrella, which opened as Diriyah’s inaugural hotel and sits next to the Bujairi Terrace dining district and the UNESCO-listed At-Turaif.
Performance data has not been made public, but Diriyah executives say the hotel is “doing very well”, and its F&B, including Taleed by chef Michael Mina is already feeding into the broader visitor economy at Bujairi Terrace.
Early footfall data from Bujairi Terrace and At-Turaif is encouraging. Both are on track for more than four million visits this year, giving Diriyah what Rajeh describes as “the highest number of average monthly visitors out of any site in Riyadh”.
But retail conversion and spend per visitor will ultimately matter more for returns than pure visitation. Diriyah’s marketing strategy suggests the company is conscious of this. Over the last year it has used London as a staging ground, combining a Harrods showcase for residential product with a One Hyde Park experience centre, an immersive Outernet takeover and a trade-facing presence at World Travel Market.
“All of that together targets local, GCC and international visitors and investors,” says Samin Amin, executive director at Diriyah Company says.
Luxury play
For branded residences in particular such as the development’s Baccarat, Corinthia, Raffles and Ritz Carlton residences, those multi-channel campaigns are effectively lead-generation exercises.
Although historically, international buyers have been constrained by regulations, and around 90 per cent of buyers to date have been Saudi according to Rajeh, this will begin to shift soon when new foreign-ownership rules come into force in January 2026. The change is designed to make it easier for non-residents to buy in designated areas such as Diriyah and expected to broaden the investor pool for high-end product.
But while luxury seems central to the project’s positioning, project directors note the development aims to attract everyone, notably through its F&B and retail offerings for those staying in more pocket-friendly destinations.
The 186,000 sqm retail and office district Diriyah Square is set to host around 450 luxury and premium brands.
While the tenant list is still under wraps, Princess Lama Al Saud, global PR manager at Diriyah company hints at ongoing negotiations with significant brands “We’re going to have a lot of flagship stores. We’re currently in the process of finalising these deals and those announcements will be made soon.”
First of these announcements is Apple which on Monday was revealed has signed a lease agreement to open a flagship retail store in Diriyah Square.
A step further
Just beyond the plateau, spread across 62 square kilometres, Wadi Safar serves as Diriyah’s ultra-exclusive resort and nature-led extension. Aimed at being very low-density with particular focus placed on privacy, Wadi Safar which is currently under construction will boast branded residences – Oberoi, Aman, Six Senses, Chedi, Faena -, a Greg Norman-designed golf course, polo and equestrian club.
With a total of 150 branded residences units commanding prices - starting from around SR 50 million for Oberoi residences and Aman, Faena and Chedi north of that -, land plots for sale ranging between SR 6,000 per square metre, and memberships for the golf club expected at around £20,000 per year, Wadi Safar is clearly a level up from the luxury offering of Diriyah, and will be a test of just how deep the ultra-prime residential resort market is around Riyadh.
Executives say they are already seeing interest. “We’ve sold all ten Oberoi units. Sales traction for Aman, Faena and Chedi are quite active, mostly by Saudi buyers but there’s international presence there too,” says Daniel West, executive director of development at Diriyah Company.
And the core of Wadi Safar is scheduled to feel “complete” by the end of 2026, when most resort keys and facilities are online. But the commercial question is simple: how deep is the buyer pool for ultra-prime hillside Riyadh product at these pricing levels, especially as other giga-projects bring UHNW offerings to market?
Working in tandem
This is no doubt a pertinent question as Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects are often compared against each other: the Red Sea for beach luxury, NEOM for futurism, Qiddiya for entertainment etc.
But internally, Diriyah executives emphasise that the project is a peer, not a rival to other flagship developments.
“We’re all working towards realising Vision 2030 and attracting all the tourism visitation mandated by the Ministry of Tourism,” Amin says.
That continued move to boost tourism numbers is further emphasised by Mohammed al Basri, media relations at Diriyah Gate Development Authority. “Saudi Arabia’s target is to promote the country so people can come and see how much culture and heritage we have.”
The early success of Bujairi Terrace and At-Turaif visitation shows local adoption is real. The test now is depth: do enough people from far and wide want to stay longer, spend more and crucially, buy into a heritage-anchored luxury district in the capital?
Diriyah is betting that the past, curated with the future in mind, can support powerful revenues long into the future. The next few years leading up to project completion in 2030 will tell us just how much success will be enjoyed…and whether it’ll become a blueprint.
By Ifeoluwa Taiwo
