He said he wanted his children to live as Arabs and Muslims and had chosen an Arabic school for them. I offered to help him find suitable accommodation for him and his family. I suggested to him that we start looking for an apartment near his children’s school.
I promised to meet him the next day after the Asr prayer to start the search for a house. He readily agreed but could not conceal his astonishment at the possibility that the search might continue for days.
We met as planned and spent at least two hours visiting real estate offices, one after another, and seeing many properties that were suggested to us.
We failed to find a suitable flat for him despite the numerous offers made to us.
At the end of this unsuccessful tour, he asked me why we had a large number of real estate offices on the same street. He also asked why we did not have real estate agents with sufficient knowledge of all apartments for rent.
I assured him that we do have knowledgeable agents, but his requirements would only be met by these small offices.
I began thinking about his question. Why do we have this large number of real estate offices, which run into thousands? What is their role in real estate development? Is their large number a good or bad thing? Do they effectively facilitate the process of selling and buying?
We had no real estate offices in Riyadh 40 years ago. The brokers were the owners of the buildings themselves. These real estate offices started to become conspicuous in the mid-1970s with the oil boom. Land represented an investment opportunity to absorb the excess liquidity, leading to the emergence of more and more real estate agents.
I think that real estate offices increased because they were easy to obtain licenses for. They do not cost much money and since they are run only in the evenings, they do not affect daytime jobs.
They also do not need much time or effort to operate. Many government employees choose to run them upon retiring. They need no skills nor qualifications. I concluded that real estate offices mushroomed for these reasons.
