What the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing now expects from worker accommodation, who has to comply, the two routes to compliance, and a practical checklist to audit a camp before you sign a lease or a contract.
Worker housing in Saudi Arabia used to be policed mostly at inspection time. That changed in 2025 and 2026. The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing published health, safety and technical regulations for group housing in August 2025, and in March 2026 the National Program for Developing Collective Housing began pressing establishments with 20 or more workers to regularise their labour housing. The programme runs with the Ministries of Interior, Health, Human Resources and Social Development, Commerce, and Industry and Mineral Resources, so the pressure arrives through more than one government service.
The practical consequence for an employer is simple. If you house workers, you now need either a collective housing licence for your own facility through the Balady platform, or a contract with a provider that already holds one. Firms that do neither risk recorded violations and the suspension of some government services tied to the establishment.
Route one: license your own camp. You apply through Balady, meet the municipal, health and technical standards for your facility category, and carry the inspections, records and upkeep yourself.
Route two: contract a licensed provider. The provider holds the licence, runs the camp and keeps the records; you pay per person per day and keep your own headcount on an inspection-ready footing without owning a building.
Four bodies touch a labour camp. The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing sets the group housing regulations and issues the collective housing licence through Balady. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development governs the employer’s obligation to provide suitable housing under the Labour Law and the long-standing Ministerial Decision 399 of 2007 on housing conditions for workers. Civil Defence approves fire systems and evacuation plans. The Ministry of Health and the municipality inspect hygiene, water, kitchens and pest control. A camp that satisfies only one of them is not compliant.
The regulations announced in August 2025 split group housing into categories and attach occupancy and amenity rules to each. The figures below are as reported at the time of publication; confirm the current Balady requirements for your licence category before you commit to a building.
Requirement | Rule as published |
|---|---|
Occupancy per room | No more than 10 residents per room, with at least four square metres per resident |
Residential buildings | Up to 500 people, with a Saudi national overseeing operations |
Residential complexes | Up to 10,000 residents, with prayer rooms, an emergency room for every 1,000 residents and an on-site clinic for every 5,000 |
Mobile cabins near major projects | Steel or aluminium frames, insulated walls, central kitchens, isolation rooms, prayer areas, laundry, clinics and climate systems |
Shared amenities, all types | Kitchens, bathrooms, rest areas, laundry, climate control, potable water, cleaning services and pest management |
Safety | Fire detection, first-aid kits, emergency routes and accessibility for residents with disabilities |
Site planning | Built-up area capped at 40 percent of the plot, one parking space per 100 residents, bus parking for half the population, disabled parking |
Approvals | Building permit plus safety and public health plans approved before occupation |
Earlier municipal guidance, as summarised by JLL in 2021, used a minimum of 4.8 square metres per person and a maximum of four residents per room. The 2025 framework moved to category-based rules, which is why the per-room cap and area figure differ. Where a client or a project owner such as a giga-project imposes stricter standards in its contract, the stricter standard applies.
Use this list on a site walk before you lease a building, buy cabins or sign with a provider. Every item should have a document behind it, not a verbal assurance.
Owning a camp makes sense when you have a long project, a stable headcount above a few hundred and a facilities team who can hold the licence, the inspections and the daily operation. For everyone else the arithmetic usually favours a licensed provider. A provider spreads the cost of a camp boss, a kitchen, security, maintenance and compliance across several clients, mobilises in days rather than months, and takes the inspection risk. You pay one rate per person per day and scale the beds up or down with the project.
The questions to ask a provider are the same as the checklist above, plus three more: is the camp licensed in the provider’s own name, are the cleaners, cooks and guards the provider’s own employees under its sponsorship, and will you get a weekly occupancy report that reconciles to the invoice.
BICC runs licensed, fully serviced camps in Jubail, Jeddah and Yanbu and furnished staff housing in Al Khobar, with camp bosses, housekeeping, kitchens and security from its own teams. For Dammam, Riyadh and project sites we source, license and operate a camp for the contract term. One rate per person per day covers the bed, utilities, cleaning and security, with meals, laundry and transport added when you need them, and the records are kept ready for Ministry, Civil Defence and client inspection.
The March 2026 compliance drive is aimed at establishments employing 20 or more workers. If you house fewer than that, the general housing conditions under the Labour Law still apply, but the licensing push is focused on larger employers.
It is the municipal licence for a building or complex used as group housing, issued through the Balady platform once the facility meets the health, safety and technical standards for its category.
Shared apartments and villas used for several workers fall under the same group housing rules once they house workers collectively, so the occupancy, safety and licensing requirements still apply.
The regulations published in August 2025 cap a room at 10 residents with at least four square metres each; client contracts and some project owners set stricter limits. Confirm the figure for your category on Balady.
Violations are recorded against the establishment and some government services can be suspended until the facility is brought into compliance. Contracting a licensed provider moves that risk off your books.
Workers can usually move into an existing BICC camp within one to two weeks; a new camp for a project is sourced, licensed and operated for the contract term.
Sources: Gulf News, August 2025, on the group housing regulations, People Matters, March 2026, on the compliance drive for establishments with 20 or more workers, JLL, 2021, on earlier municipal labour accommodation guidance
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