Post by Charlie Catterall

IS ANYTHING GETTING BUILT? When people talk to me about Saudi, a lot of them ask about The Line — the 170km mirrored city in the desert. "That's not actually happening though, is it?" The Line is one project, in NEOM, hundreds of miles from Riyadh. Judging Saudi by The Line is like judging the whole of the UK by HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd.... Living here, I get to see what's actually happening — and I don't think it's being reported properly back home. Riyadh isn't a future promise. It's live now and still growing: 🏙️ KAFD | كافد open — 95 buildings, 3 million m² of floor space, anchored by the 80-storey Public Investment Fund (PIF) Tower. 🎢 Six Flags Qiddiya City and Aquarabia Qiddiya City open at Qiddiya, with an F1 racetrack and a Dragon Ball Z theme park on the way. 🏗️ Over 100 cranes on site at Diriyah Company l شركة الدرعية, where Bujairi Terrace has been open since 2022. 🛍️ Boulevard World & City, Digital City KSA, Laysen Valley | ليسن فالي Valley, the first 5km of Sports Boulevard Foundation Boulevard and a thriving Diplomatic Quarter (DQ) — all live now — with The Avenues, Westfield Jawharat and King Salman Park Foundation all due in 2027. It's genuinely an exciting time to be here. Project after project is moving into build / delivery, and if you visit you'll see it instantly — cranes, hoarding and development going up everywhere you look. The Western headlines just focus on the wrong thing. The Line is the least representative project in the country — it doesn't show the reality of how much is already here, and how much more keeps coming online as we head towards 2030. Riyadh is a real city, already the size of London, being built in real time.