THE skyscrapers of the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) rise out of Riyadh’s urban sprawl like an emerald city. Pointed glass spears compete for prominence with vast staggered lean-tos, streaked black-and-white like the back of a rearing zebra. A monorail curves past a butterfly dome. Blissfully vehicle-free in a city otherwise designed for cars, not people, KAFD is built around pedestrian precincts shaded by palm trees. Even the rubbish is collected on an underground conveyor belt. After seven years, the first phase of a futuristic financial hub for the Arab world’s largest economy is nearly complete. It has cost more than $10 billion and the lives of 11 building workers. Something is missing, however. While decorators install tropical plants in the conference hall, the legal, fiscal and cultural architecture is still on the drawing board. Waleed Aleisa, the CEO, says he is still waiting to hear whether the zone will be free of corporation tax and under what jurisdiction it will operate.

At the outset, the project managers imagined a city which would be both in Saudi Arabia and apart from it. Visas would be issued at the airport, sidestepping the kingdom’s red tape. They had visions of a big gated community, largely off-limits to the religious police. Anticipating a mixed workplace in a society where segregation is otherwise de rigueur, male and female toilets were installed on all floors. Brochures portrayed men and unveiled women chatting together. “You have to have different rules for KAFD,” pleads Mr Aleisa.

But last year the kingdom changed rulers, and King Salman and his son, Muhammad, seem loth to upset the religious establishment while they find their feet. The Saudi central bank, its stock exchange and its sovereign-wealth fund have all assured Mr Aleisa that they are moving in; but international finance houses are proving harder to pin down without clarity on the basics, such as whether women can work with men or what jurisdiction it will operate under. “We should hear sometime in 2016,” says Mr Aleisa.

Saudi Arabia’s loss will be Dubai’s gain. Though its economy is smaller than the Saudi one and bereft of oil, Dubai claims to have attracted 21 of the world’s top 25 banks, drawn by its barely taxed, lightly regulated “free zone” for foreign firms. “It’s about getting the right legal system, not the right architecture,” says a Gulf investment banker, welcoming Dubai’s introduction of English judges handing down English law. Riyadh’s new buildings look good; investors hope they are not built on sand.