World’s tallest tower to open in Jeddah in late 2028

• Completion has been pushed back
• Construction resumed January 2025
• Apartment sales begin 2027

Jeddah Tower, set to become the world’s tallest building, and the first phase of a new city around it should be completed in “late 2028”, a few months later than a date given last year, the developer’s chief executive has said.

The tower reached 116 floors last month, about 466 metres, Fabian Toscano, chief executive of Jeddah Economic Company, told Saudi Mega Projects 2026, an event in Riyadh. That leaves 41 of the 157 planned floors to build, as war in the Gulf drives up costs for Saudi contractors.

The tower sits in Obhur, about 20km north of central Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia’s commercial capital, between Obhur Creek and the Red Sea. It is the only tower rising across the 5.3 million square metre Jeddah Economic City, which Toscano called “the heart of the project”.

Construction stopped in early 2018 during an anti-corruption purge, which saw the detention of the chairman of Saudi Binladin Group, the tower’s main contractor. When work restarted in January 2025, 63 floors stood complete.

Pace has picked up since. The tower stood at 74 floors last November, which means Saudi Binladin Group has added about 42 floors in 10 months. Toscano said workers need roughly five days to add a floor to the core of the building, while the wings take longer. At that rate, the core needs about seven more months before a spire is added.

The final height remains under wraps. Toscano would say only “a kilometre plus”, against 828 metres for Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Unlike the Burj, Jeddah Tower is concrete to the top except for the spire.

“I think times have changed since Burj Khalifa,” he said. “Today, you can pump concrete all the way to one kilometre.”

Phase one covers 1.7 million square metres of land, which Toscano likened to Downtown Dubai. Every plot is serviced, meaning roads, power, water and district cooling are in place.

“People could take a plot today and they can develop tomorrow,” he said.

Sales dates have drifted, however. Toscano said the company would show the full masterplan at Cityscape in Riyadh in November, where it will open formal talks with developers for phase one land. Tower apartments will go on sale in 2027.

Fady Nassim, the project’s executive head of urban planning, told AGBI last November that homes would go on sale off-plan in 2026, with land sales starting in the new year.

Inside the tower, most contracts are locked in. Work is moving to mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and closing the facade.

Further reading:

• Jeddah Tower to cost $26bn as work restarts⁠⁠​
• Jeddah Tower will be world’s tallest building, but sky’s the limit⁠⁠​
• Saudi construction costs in steepest hike in two years⁠⁠

Those trades face the sharpest price rises. Electrical wire and cable, both imported and copper-dependent, rose as much as 22 percent and 26 percent year on year in July, according to Saudi Contractors Authority data.

Chris Seymour, Mace Consult’s managing director for the Middle East and Africa, told AGBI in September that contractors had reordered mechanical, electrical and plumbing work earlier to protect timelines.

“That does not take the cost away,” he said. “This is going to cost more.”

“The tower has to be delivered to the right quality, on time, on budget,” Toscano said. “We have to launch the tower to the world and keep our promises to the potential buyers.”