Saudi body approves cash ban in real-estate dealings

Cairo: Saudi Arabia’s consultative Shura Council has approved a ban on cash dealings by the real-estate and brokerage businesses as the country is going ahead with digital transformation in various fields.

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, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported.

In July, Saudi Arabia started tripling the VAT from 5 per cent on goods and services as part of measures to mitigate economic fallout from the impact of the new coronavirus and a fall in oil prices.

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.