The positive impact of the opening of the Riyadh Metro on residential values in the Saudi capital has been revealed by Knight Frank, with some villas close to stations now seeing uplifts of 78% on 2023 prices.
Delivered in an unprecedented single “big bang” launch, the Riyadh Metro is described as a transformational milestone in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic growth strategy. The six-line, 85-station network has transported more than 100 million passengers in its first nine months of operation, reflecting strong demand for enhanced connectivity.
Knight Frank estimates around 1.5m of Riyadh’s 8.3m residents live within a 15-minute walk of a metro station, equivalent to 18% of the city’s population. For comparison, in Dubai approximately 13% of the population live within walking distance of the Dubai Metro.
Faisal Durrani of Knight Frank adds: “The opening of the Riyadh Metro is the starting point of the city’s urban transformation, not its conclusion. Designed to generate change rather than react to it, the system will reshape residential patterns, business locations and the lived experience of the city’s residents.
“As one of the flagship initiatives of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the metro is more than a transport project, it is a cornerstone of the Kingdom’s ambition to diversify the economy, enhance liveability and transform Riyadh into a global capital. Transport infrastructure is central to this vision, reducing car dependency, cutting emissions and enabling more sustainable patterns of growth.”
The three stations with the highest surrounding populations are Al Bat’ha, Al Wizarat and National Museum in central Riyadh. Each has around 50,000 residents living within 15 minutes’ walk.
To measure the property market’s response to the metro opening, Knight Frank compared villa prices in three districts with differing characteristics: Tuwaiq, Al Yarmuk and Al Malqa. In each case, homes located within a 15-minute walk of a metro station were benchmarked against those further away.
The direct impact on villa prices is already visible, with the research showing clear evidence of a metro premium.
In Tuwaiq, the value of homes near the station rose by 20% between Q2 2023 and Q2 2025, compared with 10% growth further away. In Al Yarmuk, the effect was especially pronounced, with prices near the metro surging by 78%, versus 22% in more peripheral areas. Even in Al Malqa, one of Riyadh’s most established districts, values near the metro have climbed by 20%.
Durrani adds: “Proximity to metro stations is also having a direct impact on apartment values. For instance, prices for apartments close to a station are, on average, SAR 96 psm higher than for an equivalent apartment just 500 m further away. In fact, our analysis shows that for every additional metre closer to a station an apartment is, the price rises by SAR 0.19 psm. This means that for two otherwise identical 250 sqm apartments, the one located 500m closer to the metro station will, on average, be valued at SAR 24,000 more”.
For developers and investors, Knight Frank says the Metro network creates opportunities for placemaking in the immediate vicinity of the new stations and could unlock new land parcels that may have previously been considered too remote.
While Riyadh’s urban form has historically been low-density and car-centric, the introduction of the metro alongside supportive land-use changes, such as upzoning around stations, could produce similar dynamics: higher foot traffic supporting retail, new housing projects clustered around stations, and a shift in preferences toward transit-served neighbourhoods.
These effects could also eventually extend to neighbourhoods not in direct proximity to a station. The metro cannot operate in isolation; to fully unlock its value, it must be supported by reliable feeder modes such as buses and improved pedestrian networks. Recent bus passenger data underlines this interdependence. Nationally, buses served 23m passengers in Q1 2025 – a 34% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.
And while in the second quarter of the year country-wide bus passenger volumes decreased by 7% from the first quarter, in Riyadh they continued to grow – rising from 15 million to 15.6 million.
