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The Trump Organization is moving ahead with a second residential project in Jeddah — bringing the total value of its real estate ambitions in the kingdom to more than $10 billion — after rapid early sales at its first development in the city, executive vice president Eric Trump told Semafor.
“The second we launched it, sales absolutely soared,” Trump said in an interview.
Alongside Jeddah, the company is putting its name on a golf and residential community in Diriyah — a $63 billion, Public Investment Fund–backed development on the outskirts of Riyadh that’s being developed into a cultural and tourist destination — in partnership with Dar Global, the international arm of a Saudi-based property developer.
Dar Global CEO Ziad El Chaar said the Diriyah project will include 500 mansions, priced between $6.7 million and $24 million. The company also launched a $1 billion project in Jeddah on Monday.
The Saudi push comes as the kingdom pours more than $1.3 trillion into real estate and infrastructure, including at five gigaprojects: NEOM, Red Sea, ROSHN, Diriyah, and Qiddiyah.
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Eric Trump said Saudi Arabia is attractive because of its size and strong demand for high-quality developments. He contrasted the kingdom with Europe, where regulatory hurdles can delay projects for years. “Go try and build something iconic right now — you can’t do it,” he said, adding that the Gulf remains one of the few regions where large, architecturally ambitious developments are actively encouraged.
US President Donald Trump — who isn’t involved with the operation of the company he founded — visited Diriyah with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in May. Jerry Inzerillo, who leads Diriyah Co., said the president was struck by the scale and pace of construction.
The expansion in the luxury segment comes as more Saudi citizens and foreign workers are priced out of property in Riyadh. The government imposed a five-year freeze on residential and commercial rents in the capital last year.
El Chaar said the kingdom is at an early stage of a long real-estate cycle, drawing parallels with Dubai’s growth years ago, but with a larger domestic population and clearer regulations that are designed to limit speculation as the market opens further.
Dar Global has licensed the Trump name for projects across the Gulf, including ones in Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. In Dubai, the two are developing the Trump International Hotel & Tower, while additional regional projects are under consideration.
Notable
- Saudi Arabia is opening parts of its housing market to foreign buyers, betting vast new supply can keep locals from being priced out, Bloomberg reported.
- The kingdom’s real estate and infrastructure projects are adding pressure on housing supply as Riyadh absorbs nearly half of new jobs, according to a Knight Frank report.