Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC) is expanding its technology investments, moving beyond the development of digital platforms and services to deeper infrastructure and technological capabilities for the real estate sector, including data centers, artificial intelligence, data analytics and geospatial technologies. The shift comes as the company seeks to reshape the real estate customer journey, from searching for a home and securing financing to ownership and managing related services, through an integrated digital ecosystem supported by data and advanced technologies. Rayan Alaql, CEO of NHC Innovation, the digital and technology arm of NHC, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the company had evolved from building digital platforms serving specific procedures to developing an integrated technology ecosystem that is reshaping the real estate experience, from searching for a home, financing and ownership to managing interactions with municipal and real estate services. Investment in technology capabilities Alaql explained that the company’s technology investments had expanded from platforms and digital services to deeper enabling capabilities, including data, AI, infrastructure, data centers and technologies supporting smart cities. The data center at Khuzam Digital Valley is part of this strategy, with investments totaling SAR 3.3 billion, or about $880 million, and a target IT load of up to 65 megawatts by 2033. The center is intended to develop digital infrastructure supporting cloud services and advanced technologies. Its services will include hosting and leasing, managed services, cloud computing and IT, power and connectivity, and value-added services. To support the center’s readiness and attract global technology partnerships, the company signed cooperation agreements with BytePlus, the technology arm of ByteDance, and NAVER Innovation. The agreements include allocating capacity to the two companies as the first customers of the data center, alongside providing technological services supporting their operations and digital needs. Serving more than 35 million users Alaql noted that the company’s platforms serve more than 35 million direct and indirect users, including beneficiaries, entities and partners, through an ecosystem of platforms and digital solutions linked to housing, municipal services and real estate regulation. Users have interacted with more than 15 digital platforms. He said usage patterns had changed significantly in recent years. Users no longer access a platform merely to complete a procedure, but increasingly rely on it to make decisions, compare options, find suitable services and follow their journey more clearly. This shift, he added, reflects how the platforms have become part of the sector’s operating infrastructure rather than an additional service channel. AI in real estate services Alaql stressed that the company regards AI as a fundamental enabling layer rather than a standalone product, using it to improve the customer experience, enhance recommendations, analyze patterns, facilitate access to appropriate real estate options and provide relevant entities with more accurate insights into the market, demand and services. He cited the Sakani platform as an example, saying the objective is to help users identify options that most closely match their needs, financial capacity and preferences instead of confronting them with thousands of choices. The real impact of AI, he added, emerges when it produces tangible results: faster service, clearer decisions, lower operating costs and a fairer, more transparent experience for users. Data and geospatial technologies He said the next stage of urban and real estate planning requires a more precise understanding of location, demand, mobility, services and infrastructure, with geospatial technologies and AI helping planners view a city as an interconnected system. Linking spatial data with information on demand, services, utilities and user behavior can make planning decisions more precise and help identify priorities, including where development is needed, where services should be expanded and where gaps can be reduced. He added that such tools shorten the time required for studies and analysis, reduce decisions based on subjective impressions and allow authorities and developers to plan with greater confidence. Partnerships and homeownership Alaql said global partnerships aim to transfer knowledge, accelerate capacity building, develop solutions applicable to the Saudi market and connect local expertise with leading global technologies. The company has pursued partnerships in AI, data, data centers and smart cities as part of efforts to build local capabilities and develop products addressing market needs. On financing and homeownership, he pointed that customers have historically had to navigate multiple entities, numerous decisions and incomplete information. The company is working to build a more connected journey, beginning with understanding the customer’s needs, presenting appropriate options and facilitating financing through to completing procedures clearly and quickly. The aim is not merely to move procedures onto a digital platform, he stressed, but to redesign the journey itself through integrated data, clearer options and systems capable of recommendation, verification and matching. The company participated in LEAP 2026 in Riyadh last week. The official underlined that its participation reflected a new stage in its development, focused not only on showcasing digital solutions but on demonstrating how technology can reshape real estate, support smart cities and build digital infrastructure capable of meeting future needs. Alaql described LEAP as a platform for highlighting the evolution of the company’s business model from developing digital services to building the technological enablers of the digital economy in real estate and cities.
