How Much It Really Costs to Live in Riyadh (2026 Update)

How Much It Really Costs to Live in Riyadh (2026 Update)

A year in, Carly and Vesna re-priced their whole life in Riyadh: what's gone up, what surprised them, and what they'd tell someone running the numbers before a move. This is the granular version of the cost conversation, from the two biggest line items down to the ones nobody warns you about. They walk through compounds across four tiers, from the common 300 to 350K range to the half-million luxe end, plus what an off-compound option like Sedra actually trades away. International school fees land near 100K per child once trips, uniforms and deposits are counted, and they're honest about the math that forces real choices: cheaper school or more travel, space or community, save or spend.   They get into the Chinese cars they both bought outright, fuel so cheap it changes how you move around the city, a four-tier map of where to grocery shop, and the beauty, abaya and travel spend that adds up quietly underneath everything.   No invented numbers, just what a year of living it has actually cost them. Follow Inside Saudi so you never miss a Monday episode.   New here? Start with our cost of living and relocation episodes. Follow us: Show: @insidesaudiarabia Carly: @caroverman on insta / @carlyoverman on tiktok Vesna: @vesnapetrovicx Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi Got a question we didn't cover? Drop it in the comments and we'll get to it in a future episode. Listen wherever you get podcasts   Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 01:01 Welcome and what this episode covers 02:47 The biggest cost: schools vs compounds 03:37 Is Riyadh expensive? London, Sydney, Vancouver 04:27 Housing: compounds and your top-three list 06:47 The common tier: 300 to 350K compounds 09:11 Apartment-style compounds: 150 to 250K 13:53 Off-compound: the community trade-off 14:42 The luxe end: half a million to one million 16:35 Less is more: what a year taught us 17:28 Utilities, electricity and internet 19:17 School fees: roughly 100K per child 20:50 Uniforms, ECAs and the trips that add up 24:40 Visas, exit re-entry and premium residency 25:58 Cars: why we both bought Chinese, outright 28:22 Fuel: the one genuinely cheap thing 29:08 Groceries: weekly spend and where we shop 31:00 The grocery map: Spinneys down to corner shops 34:31 Beauty: nails, Botox, finding someone you trust 39:35 Abayas: 50 riyals to a few thousand 42:30 Clothing and kids' clothes 44:20 Help, nannies and cleaners 45:00 Travel: why living here makes you want to go 46:01 Wrap-up

Your Neck Pain Starts In Your Gut? Wellness in Riyadh (Peter, Tonic The Method)

Your neck pain and your gut might be the same problem. This week we sit down with Peter from Tonic The Method on what wellness actually looks like in Riyadh right now.   Peter is a physical therapist and Chinese-medicine specialist who moved here from Lebanon expecting wellness to rank near the bottom of people's priorities. He was wrong. We get into the nerve that connects your neck to your stomach, the breathing fix he reaches for before any machine, which everyday foods are quietly acidic, the exact contrast-therapy order he recommends, and why he reads teeth grinding as a clue to something bigger. Plus the colon-massage story Vesna will never live down.   Hosted by Carly and Vesna. Listen and follow wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi [https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi]   Chapters: 00:00 Intro and Teaser Highlights 01:18 Welcome - What This Episode Is About 03:13 Meet Peter and Introducing Tonic 180 06:15 Tonic's Services and Kingdom Tower Launch 11:47 The Wellness Scene in Riyadh 13:21 The Gut and Neck Pain Connection 19:13 Diet: Alkaline vs Acidic Foods 24:21 Pressotherapy Explained 26:33 Infrared Sauna and Cold Plunge 33:58 Red Light Therapy 39:29 Laser Body Remodeling 45:59 EMS (Electromagnetic Muscle Stimulation) 48:19 The Tonic Signature Massage and Colon Cleanse 52:26 PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields) 56:10 Dry Needling and Electroacupuncture 59:22 Personalised Protocols and Recommendations

Wedding at the Ritz, Summer Plans & Why We Chose Riyadh

After a run of guest episodes, we did something different.. a live summer Q&A on TikTok, answering your questions in real time, and turned it into this week's episode. No guest, just us catching up before the summer break. We get into what a Saudi wedding at the Ritz-Carlton is actually like, the malls worth your time in Riyadh, the Saudi and Gulf abaya designers we actually buy from, learning Arabic from scratch, and the question that started this whole show: why Saudi, and would we choose Riyadh again. Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, co-hosted by two moms living in Riyadh, made for Saudis, residents, and anyone trying to make sense of the Gulf during Vision 2030. Listen wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 01:42 Welcome — summer catch-up, live on TikTok 02:47 Summer plans: UK, Greece, Macedonia 05:24 The Saudi wedding at the Ritz-Carlton 09:08 Why we chose Saudi 13:44 Our Saudi road trip — Taif, Jeddah, AlUla, the Eastern Province 18:05 Learning Arabic 21:55 What weddings here are really like 26:14 The malls we love in Riyadh 28:45 Abayas and Saudi designers 31:48 Beauty and salons 35:48 Saudi schools 38:10 Riyadh or Jeddah — would we choose it again 38:51 What surprised us most: the hospitality 45:20 What is the podcast about

Everything You Got Wrong About the Saudi Sun

Saudi Arabia had no sunscreen of its own, in one of the hottest climates on earth. Ghadi Alshehri spent three years fixing that.   Ghadi is the founder of Borderline Beauty, the first homegrown Saudi sunscreen. She sat down with Carly and Vesna in Riyadh to talk about the gap she found, the science most of us were never taught, and what it takes to build something Saudi-made right now.   In this episode: - How she found the gap on an ordinary Tuesday at work - Chemical vs mineral sunscreen, and why it actually matters - Why UV passes through glass, clothes, and cloudy skies - Three years of formulation in Korea, and the "impossible" brief - Growing up between Manchester and Riyadh - Vision 2030, being seen, and building something local - Her advice for the next Saudi founder   Listen anywhere you get your podcasts: pod.link/insidesaudi   Follow Inside Saudi: Instagram @insidesaudiarabia TikTok @insidesaudiarabia Hosts: @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx Guest: Borderline Beauty @borderlinebeautysa   Chapters 00:00 The country with no sunscreen 00:35 Meet Ghadi and Raghad 02:00 The Tuesday she found the gap 05:00 Chemical vs mineral, explained 09:00 The myths: glass, clothes, cloudy days 13:00 Three years, Korea, and a formula that didn't exist 18:00 Manchester to Riyadh, and coming back 24:00 Vision 2030 and building something Saudi-made 30:00 Advice for the next founder   #SaudiArabia #Vision2030 #MadeInSaudi #SaudiBeauty #Riyadh

The Premium Residency Episode: All 7 Routes

There are seven routes to Saudi Premium Residency. Most people only know about one or two of them, and almost everyone thinks Vesna got hers because of Instagram. This week, Carly and Vesna walk through all seven, what each costs, what each unlocks, and what they wish they'd understood before they started navigating it themselves. Vesna holds Premium Residency as a secondary, sponsored by her husband, and she's open about what that actually means in practice: full benefits for him, partial for her, and a learning curve for the whole family. Carly doesn't have it. Together they break down limited-duration, unlimited-duration, special talent, gifted, investor, entrepreneur, and real-estate routes, with the actual SAR figures and the catch on each one. A few things to know up front: this isn't legal advice, the Premium Residency website is the only source you should trust to apply, and the math fact-check halfway through is worth staying for. Part two, on starting a business once you have residency, is coming. Listen wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, co-hosted by two moms in Riyadh. Follow Inside Saudi: Instagram: @insidesaudiarabia TikTok: @insidesaudiarabia Carly: @caroverman (Instagram) @carlyoverman (TikTok) Vesna: @vesnapetrovicx   Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:53 Welcome + why this episode 03:00 Seven routes, overview 07:20 Route 1: Limited duration (100,000 SAR/year) 08:45 Route 2: Unlimited duration (800,000 SAR) 10:39 Route 3: Special talent residency 13:13 Route 4: Gifted residency (culture & sports) 16:10 Route 5: Investor residency (7M SAR + 10 jobs) 16:45 Route 6: Entrepreneur residency (two tiers) 21:02 Route 7: Real estate residency (4M SAR unmortgaged) 22:04 Process, timeline, background checks 24:58 Myths people get wrong 27:31 The big summary