How much notice is needed to not renew a lease in Saudi Arabia?

The regulatory provisions governing the relationship between lessors and tenants, issued by Royal Decree M/73 dated 2/4/1447H, made automatic renewal the general rule in Item Eight: a lease renews unless one party notifies the other at least 60 days before it ends that they do not wish to renew. Item Eight sets two exceptions: fixed-term leases that had 90 days or less left when the provisions took effect, and leases that both parties agree to end by mutual consent after the notice deadline has passed.

Outside Riyadh, both the tenant and the lessor may decline to renew without conditions, provided they respect the notice period.

Paragraph 2 of Item Eight allows REGA to extend the notice period in model contracts in line with the lease’s term and type. On that basis, REGA’s chief executive decided on 2/7/1447H (December 2025) that in model residential leases a lessor’s non-renewal notice must be at least 365 days before the lease ends when the lessor wants to vacate the property for personal use or for use by a first-degree relative.

A further decision dated 7/9/1447H applied this period to all residential leases in force when the provisions took effect, and provided that if the 365 days are not met before the lease ends, the lease renews for as long as needed to complete them, counted from the date the non-renewal notice was given.

Neither decision names a city. Ejar, however, presents the 365-day notice as one of the non-renewal conditions that bind lessors in Riyadh, and says that elsewhere both parties may cancel auto-renewal without conditions by giving notice 60 days before the end.

In the Riyadh urban area, a lessor may not refuse a renewal the tenant wants, even with timely notice, except in specific cases. This restriction applies for 5 years from the provisions’ entry into force on 25 September 2025, and a breach carries a fine of up to 12 months’ total rent. The cases are: