Saudi Arabia Approves No Cash Real-Estate Dealings

The Kingdom is pushing ahead with digital transformation in various fields as a ban on cash dealings by real-estate and brokerage businesses has been approved by Saudi Arabia’s consultative Shura Council. The Shura Council also urged the Real Estate General Authority to devise controls to stop dealing in cash at real-estate and brokerage offices as well as develop a data base to take stock of the numbers of buildings in the country and categorise them. The council voted this week for tasking the state Real Estate General Authority with monitoring the real-estate market to determine the impact of a hike added-value tax (VAT) that recently went into effect