Can a foreign family by a house in saudi?

My family are irish muslim and wish to go and live in saudi. Would we be able to buy house there or would they take us being muslim into consideration. I heard something about being able to buy a lease there?
Also what type of visa would we need and could we ever become citizens?

1. In saudi Arabia, non-citizen cannot buy one peace of land or house on their name.
2. Rental possible.
3. you can buy house or run business on behalf of saudi citizen name.

Hmmm good question. Actually you can buy a house whether muslim or not. The pre-requisite to be muslim only stands for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The best way though to go about it is find a lawyer in Saudi Arabia- in the city where you intend to buy- and have a consultation with him.

He will clarify all your questions and you will also need him when actually buying the house/flat for all the paperwork.

He would also be the best to ask regarding your visa status.

Regarding citizenship, that comes after at least 10 years, but you would need to meet certain criteria to achieve that, and all such cases are seen individually.
Dont forget that you would also need to give up your current nationality to become a saudi citizen.

P.S. Hi Willie,,,,I am not sure what happened in the 80's , but they still give the nationality nowadays. The only difference could be that now one needs to be more qualified. Thus a BA or BSc with regards to qualifications would not be that attractive anymore....If one though has- lets say -a PhD and is good in what they do, that could even lessen the 10 year wait.

Tracy, I'm happy that you're interested to move to Saudi Arabia. Let me know if you would like any assistance.. Checkout my profile, I have all my information there including a link to LinkedIn which has the rest of the professional stuff.

If you want assistance in getting to your goal, then allow me to help if you may, contact me or any member of your family and we'll see how it can be progressed. :-)

no you can't, not unless you have a Saudi citizenship

Under Freehold Properties - YES you can buy the house - BUT NOT the land.

Saudi is trying to adopt the policy set up by Dubai and EMAAR/NAKHEEL but so far - these property laws are not yet in effect as far as I remember.

Lease sounds good and there's plenty there.

Unless Saudi decided to offer once again (they did this in the early 80's i think) citizenships to those qualifies muslim professional expats, I doubt it really.

I am a muslim and live in Saudi. I lived in the UK for 11 years and to be honest i think you can practise your religion 100% more freely in the UK.

Yes you will be able to buy a home in Saudi Arabia. I think that being Muslim would help trimendouly because practiceing any other religion is prohibited except for in Armaco where there are many other places of worship and religious laws are more settle. I have heard that you can buy lease there as well. I dont know that type of visa that would be nneded that will have to be discussed with your advicer to help you go to Saudi Arabia. You can become a citzen.

hmm? very interesting.. Id like to see the outcome of this.. as I have no earthly idea...
But Im sure that Saudi as a host to the "house of God" in Islam, that they wouldnt prevent a fellow muslim from immigrating to Saudi.. Id like to know the requirements (although I am saudi american myself and live and own a home here)

I don't think so.