What's the general mood? We got ordered to work from home from next week - many have rebooked tickets including yours truly to get out. Are people sticking around for the most part? The news back home seems a little hysterical about a massive exodus. The mandate was not official, but sold as a good will gesture for our Saudi colleagues to be able to spend time with their families.

Can't say I have noticed much in Riyadh, some are sticking around and stocking up on goods from our favourite shop in DQ.

It's a real mixed bag with our corporate clients. General consensus earlier this week was that most were in a bit of a holding pattern - no mass exodus but preparing things so that if expats need to leave to return home or to a safer area in the region they are prepared to support quickly and compliantly (e.g. with tax and immigration laws!). Most had switched to work from home as a precaution but it seemed like those on the ground were a bit more calm than the media is perhaps portraying.

Stay safe everyone.

I got out many years ago so no real skin in the game but this kind of thing was always a possibility I considered while there (although to be honest, being banged up in jail for being hit by an emirati in Land Cruiser who kills all his unrestrained kids was a bigger risk).

My feeling (and I am outside the relentless UAE propaganda bubble) is that the risk at present of death or injury from strikes is very small. However, Iran isn't following the script and the US is clearly reluctant to put ships or troops in themselves. So I would not rule out some kind of Iranian escalation, such as direct troop assaults on gulf states, either for sabotage or to topple gulf dictators who they see as collaborators.

But probably bigger risk (though not to personal safety) is simply that the economy collapses. I mean, nobody in their right mind is going to buy property for a while, the image of safety is gone. I have friends and relatives flying long haul to asia who are of course avoiding middle east hubs, even if the flights were running (many are not). Tourism and aviation is a huge part of the economy, as is selling real estate to foreigners. Maybe from inside dubai's propaganda bubble, that's all still good. But from the outside, for most people, it might as well be Iraq or Afghanistan now.

Received some footage of things flying over my neighbourhood, but appears daily life in Riyadh continues. Watching it all afar from Malaysia really makes a move to SEA look very attractive in so many ways.

Given KSA have just tried to launch their own global real estate market they probably have less to lose on this for now. Perhaps the time soon to grab a bargain at knock down prices.