I'd like to welcome Abdullah Tariq Alsabi, who is a board member of Lewan Real Estate Development Corporation and the CEO of RZM Investments.
Abdullah, welcome to the show.
Hi Vince, I'm very happy to be here with you.
Well, we're delighted to have this opportunity.
You have such a, a wonderful lens into what's happening in real estate and venture capital within Saudi Arabia and beyond, so delighted you get to share that with us.
Uh, maybe you could start us off a little bit and, and tell us about Liwan.
What's happening?
What's the focus of the business?
So Lewan, it's a development, real estate development company.
We are focusing in building communities, as you know, the ecosystem and the real estate in Saudi Arabia are evolving and changing a lot.
It was Based on small buildings like 2030, 50, 100 apartments or a small complex of separated houses, houses like 1020, 30 houses, now the ecosystem and the real estate development is changing a lot, meaning building a community.
A big community with all the facilities and amenities like playgrounds, gyms, swimming pools, some retail shops, so you have a full community.
You don't have to go far away to go to a mall or a shopping center or so this is the main change in the real estate development and You know what's happening here is like what happened in different emerging markets like the UK for example, in London.
It was small buildings.
Now it is a big complex, big communities.
It happened in UAE.
It happens in Turkey.
So this is happening in Saudi, but the main difference is here is the country is changing.
The whole country is changing with the Vision 2030.
There is a lot of KPIs that we want to achieve, for example, the quality of life.
We have a KPI for quality of life.
We want to increase the quality of life of the Saudis and the residents in Saudi, so.
For example, the green areas, now it is mandatory to have a green area.
It is mandatory to have parkings.
It is mandatory to have enough spaces for pedestrians and all these kind of services.
Well, I'll tell you, you bring up some amazing points, and I'd say as an outside lens of the US and As we look at this as FinTech TV, it is seemingly a bit of turning back the clock as you referenced some of the opportunity in emerging markets that we've seen the growth, the real estate development, the economic prosperity, and maybe having that opportunity in in Saudi now, uh, particularly as you said with vision.
2030, the openness, the diversification, and really the welcoming of foreign investment, particularly around real estate this year.
I believe it's the first time that foreign investors, whether individuals or companies, can own property here in Saudi.
Sure, the, the, you know.
Your point is very long, so it has a lot of, you know, details, and I will talk, I will try to talk about some of the points that you talked about.
First of all, foreign investment, we see a high demand.
A lot of people are asking.
A lot of people are, you know, visiting the projects.
They are investors.
They are expats who are.
Moving into Riyadh to work here and you see it in different levels like funds, big family businesses, governments, and individuals, so you will find some investors who are asking about a whole building or a whole plot or to be a partner with you in the projects, or you will find, you know, investors who like to invest, especially those who like to invest early.
I think the opportunity now is.
Very good for investing in in real estate here if you are looking at this asset class.
Also, you know, building the projects is one aspect.
There is a big other aspect which is, you know, prop tech, fintech.
There is a lot of companies now in VC space, startups, tokenization, and You know, I think hundreds of companies and related fintechs to real estate, prop tech, which is directly working in this construction tech, is also in the beginning of every project, etc.
So the VCs, PEs, real estate investors, I think there is a huge opportunity in Saudi now and in Riyal.
Well, absolutely, Abdullah.
I'd love to hear you say that, particularly as FinTech when we cover so much in technology, AI, uh, tokenization, uh, something that I didn't think we'd get to talk about here.
But you bring that forward.
Can you share a little bit of how you may see some of the vision of tokenization, perhaps even in in the real estate projects?
The challenge was regulators.
Now the regulators are the most, uh, you know, uh.
They are supporting the change.
For example, in SAMA and CMA, which is the central bank and the money market regulator, they have a sandbox.
You can apply to it.
They can give you a license for it.
It is regulated.
They are open to new ideas.
They are supporting new ideas.
Sometimes they push you to finish your company and start up to finish the MVP, you know, stage and to start doing revenue straightforward.
The developers here like to use and try new technologies, so.
You will be shocked from the developers here who are welcoming Proptech and FinTech to support the projects that they are building.
Also, the customers, when they come to buy, they want to see a lot of products.
They want to see options.
I can, you know, if I want to buy partial.
Think from this unit, for example, and so on and so forth, so the opportunity is growing very rapidly.
You see me smiling from ear to ear when we talk about this, something that I didn't realize and wonderful information for our audience in the US and beyond.
Abdullah, maybe we could talk a little bit about Vision 2030.
I hear so much about quality of life and leisure and the movement to that as part of one of the pillars.
Can you share how that may be weaved into some of the real estate development?
Sure.
So the Vision 2030 is a big vision.
There are some elements which is related to our, you know, cityscape now or the real estate or the proptic aspects and the quality of life.
So there is quality of life.
There is KPIs to increase the quality of life from health, uh, sports, uh, residential.
You have to have a proper, you know, for example, parks, etc.
So the quality of life here is very, very, very important, and it is intersecting with almost all the other initiatives in the village.
Also, the, uh, you talked about the other aspect which is.
The real estate.
So the real estate now is regulated, so we have a regulation for off plan sales.
We have a regulation for renting.
We have a government portal to document.
Every contract.
So before it was not really, you know, regulated.
It was a little bit vague.
The legal system now is very, very fast.
So if you have a dispute, if you are buying or renting as a seller or a buyer, both ways, the regulator is very, very clear and governed from the government and the entities that that is regulated by the government.
Also the aspect of using digital tools now we don't have to do anything if you want to see a real estate, a flat, a house, you can see it through the portal if you want to take a tour, if you want to reserve a unit, if you want to pay.
You know there is a lot of fintechs and proptics.
I know that they say people are moving to Saudi from outside Riyadh, from different city or from different countries.
They book and rent the and rent the units before they come, before they even see it, before they even see it physically.
They saw it, of course, you know, remotely.
So a lot of aspects is changing and supported by vigilant.
Absolutely wonderful to chat with you.
Appreciate so much you sharing the vision.
I, I, I've got so much more knowledge and the knowledge for our audience.
I appreciate the time, sir.
Thank you, Michael, very much.
Thank you.
