Saudi Arabia
Construction estimating and BOQ pricing in Saudi Arabia
Published:
What changes when you price a BOQ for a Saudi project: VAT, Arabic BOQs, the Saudi Building Code, public tenders on Etimad, calendars and price sources.
Original guide based on public rules as of October 2026. Rules and rates change: check the current requirement with the relevant authority or your advisers. It is not legal or tax advice.
VAT is stated, not buried
Saudi Arabia applies value added tax at 15%. Tender documents usually ask for prices without VAT, with VAT shown separately in the summary. Price exactly as the form of tender asks: a total that mixes the two cannot be compared with other bids.
Arabic and bilingual BOQs
Public tenders, and many private ones, issue the BOQ in Arabic or in both languages. Use the item reference as the key between the two, price from the language the documents name as authoritative, and check that the units agree in both columns.
Codes and specifications
Design and construction follow the Saudi Building Code (SBC), with the project specification on top of it. A rate that assumes another country’s material grade or testing regime can be wrong even when the item description reads the same.
Government tenders
Government projects are procured under the Government Tenders and Procurement Law, and tender documents and bids go through the Etimad platform. Follow its forms and deadlines exactly: a priced BOQ in the wrong format can be excluded.
Calendar and productivity
The weekend is Friday and Saturday. Summer heat, the summer ban on outdoor work in the middle of the day and Ramadan working hours all change site productivity. Make each one a stated assumption, both in the programme and in the labour rates.
Price sources
Use current quotations from local suppliers and subcontractors for the main items, and record their dates. Published statistics, such as the construction cost indices of the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), help to track price movement but do not replace a quotation.
Where CAIS fits
CAIS was built for Saudi and regional contractors. The interface is in Arabic and English, the pricing trial reads an existing BOQ from Excel or CSV, and every output is open to your review.