Saudi developer Dar al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company plans to build a SR7.5bn ($2bn) residential district on the outskirts of Jeddah.

The company will build the 3-square-kilometre Shams al-Arous development to the east of the city. It will include more than 10,000 residential units as well as parks, entertainment centres, shopping malls, offices, restaurants, schools and mosques.

Builders will break ground on the SR1.5bn first phase and build 2,000 homes in 2010.

Dar al-Arkan expects to complete the residential district in five years.

The real estate developer is also backing a major residential project in Riyadh called Shams al-Riyadh. The $1.6bn, 10 sq km project will result in contractors building 8,000 residential units in the north of the city (MEED 11:7:09).