What Saudi Arabia Can Learn From the 2026 World Cup Property Boom

RIYADH: New data shows that host cities for the ongoing 2026 World Cup have averaged 44 percent property price growth since the tournament was announced, and with Saudi Arabia confirmed to host in 2034, the clock is already ticking.

When FIFA awarded the 2026 World Cup to the US, Canada and Mexico in June 2018, savvy investors were already looking beyond football and toward real estate.

Eight years later, the numbers make a compelling case that they were right. 

New analysis by London-based brokerage Enness Global has found that property values across all 16 cities hosting matches at the 2026 tournament have increased by an average of 44 percent since the bid was awarded, with every single market recording positive growth over that period.

The standout performer is Guadalajara, where house prices have surged 111.6 percent. Monterrey follows at 99.7 percent, and Mexico City at 60.7 percent. 

Within the US, Miami tops the table at 71.3 percent, with Kansas City at 66.2 percent and a clutch of major cities like Dallas, Philadelphia, and Houston, all posting gains in excess of 40 percent.

Even the more modest performers, Vancouver at 8.6 percent and San Francisco at 2.9 percent, were starting from significantly higher price bases. Every market is in positive territory.

For Saudi Arabia, which was awarded the 2034 World Cup in December 2024, the data arrives at a pointed moment. If the pattern from 2026 holds, and the evidence suggests the most meaningful appreciation tends to come in the early years after an announcement, not the final months before a tournament, the entry window for property investors in Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha and the wider Kingdom may already be closing.

A different kind of host nation

Comparisons between Saudi Arabia and the 2026 host nations only go so far, as industry observers are quick to observe.

Oliver Morgan, partner and real estate leader at Deloitte Middle East, told Arab News the “critical distinction” is that “the World Cup 2026 host cities are largely passive recipients of tournament-driven investment.”

He added: “Saudi Arabia is actively architecting its real estate transformation through Vision 2030, and a portfolio of marquee events.”

Morgan noted that the residential market alone is projected to reach $164.85 billion in 2026, up from $154.61 billion in 2025, growth underpinned by the Riyadh Metro, the Green Riyadh initiative, and a calendar of major events that includes Expo 2030 and the ongoing Riyadh Seasons program. The World Cup, in his view, is an amplifier rather than a catalyst.

That framing matters for how investors should think about the opportunity. Rather than a single event driving a predictable appreciation cycle, Saudi Arabia’s market is being reshaped by a structural transformation program that runs across multiple asset classes, multiple cities and multiple decades. The tournament is the most visible milestone, not the whole story.

Enness Global itself acknowledged this nuance. Major international events, it noted, tend to coincide with significant infrastructure investment, urban regeneration, increased global visibility and greater inward investment, all of which can support long-term property market performance. 

Whether the World Cup causes price growth, or simply arrives alongside the conditions that produce it, may be a distinction without a practical difference for investors.

The cities investors should be watching

The Enness data carried an underappreciated lesson beyond the headline average. The strongest performers from the 2026 host nations were not the markets most people were watching in 2018. Guadalajara and Kansas City were not the obvious plays when the bid was announced; Miami and Los Angeles were. The secondary cities outperformed.

Manar Mahmassani, co-founder and co-CEO of real estate investment platform Stake, sees clear parallels in the Saudi context. “Madinah, Alkhobar and Abha,” he said, when asked which markets investors are currently overlooking. “Riyadh has grown rapidly in the past few years, however, that early-entry window in other cities is still open.”

Her case for each is anchored in concrete capital commitments. Madinah has over $53 billion in development in the pipeline, anchored by a $37 billion Public Investment Fund-backed mega-development that will deliver 47,000 hotel rooms. 

Alkhobar, a confirmed host city with a stable rental base anchored by Aramco employees, is home to a $2 billion mixed-use development, a $1.3 billion PIF waterfront entertainment district, and 8,100 new homes under way. 

Abha, which will host matches at a new high-altitude stadium, has a PIF-backed mountain tourism destination at Soudah Peaks and over $440 million in mixed-use developments underway, all at price points well below the major cities.

“Alkhobar doesn’t get enough attention,” Mahmassani said. “Confirmed host city, stable rental base anchored by Aramco employees, and prices are a fraction of north Riyadh. That gap closes eventually.”

The regulatory picture has fundamentally changed

Perhaps the most significant development for international investors is one that has nothing to do with football. The Kingdom’s foreign ownership law for real estate has now come into effect, for the first time allowing non-Saudi nationals to own property in the country.

“A market that was largely closed to international capital until this year,” Mahmassani said. “We are mobilized to benefit from this opportunity as fractional ownership has been explicitly recognized in the Kingdom’s plans.”

For Deloitte’s Morgan, the regulatory environment is a feature rather than a constraint. Saudi Arabia has implemented rental freezes in Riyadh and structural policies governing international freehold ownership, frameworks he describes as “stabilizers” designed to match the volume of supply reaching the market.

“Saudi Arabia is building regulated markets rather than tournament-dependent ones,” he said. “This positions the Kingdom as a more mature, institutional-grade investment destination than previous World Cup hosts.”

The comparison to Qatar is instructive here. Lusail apartment rents fell significantly after the 2022 tournament as supply that had been built aggressively for event demand found itself without the post-tournament population to sustain it. 

Saudi Arabia’s fundamentals are structurally different — a population of 38 million, an active urbanization story, and demand drivers that will outlast 2034 — but the lesson is not lost on market participants.

Oversupply is the risk that doesn’t get talked about enough, Mahmassani said. “Buy the fundamentals, not just the event.”

When does the window close?

For investors trying to calibrate timing, the 2026 data offers a benchmark. The most substantial appreciation across host cities came in the period immediately following the tournament announcement, not in the run-up to kick-off. 

Morgan framed the cycle in phases. Early-stage investors through 2027 should focus on foundational infrastructure plays and secondary market positioning. 

At the end of this decade, as Expo 2030 Riyadh approaches and tournament infrastructure nears completion, speculative capital will intensify, which is precisely when regulatory discipline becomes most critical.

“Investors should view the World Cup as a 10-year transformation cycle, not a 2034 event,” he said.

Mahmassani’s holding strategy for retail investors is similarly long-view. “Buy property that generates yield in a city with real demand, collect income through the World Cup preparation period, and think of 2034 as an exit window rather than the payoff itself.”

The 44 percent average recorded across the 2026 host cities since 2018 will not be replicated mechanically in Saudi Arabia. The markets are different, the regulatory environment is different, and the scale of Vision 2030 means the forces at work here are considerably larger than any single tournament. 

But the underlying logic, that globally significant destinations tend to reward investors who arrive before the crowds, holds just as well in Jeddah and Abha as it did in Guadalajara and Kansas City.​​​