Having a good strategy by itself does not guarantee the success of an Organisation in achieving its strategic objectives without the successful execution of the strategy (Srivastava and Sushil in Int. J. Product. Perform. Manag. 66:1043–1063, 2017). The challenge faced by business executives is not in formulating a strategy but in executing it (Blahová in Sci. Pap. Univ. Pardubice Ser. Fac. Econ. Adm. (16):26–31, 2010) which has been recognised as a major challenge for many organisations (MacLennan and Markides in Calif. Manage. Rev. 63:89–122, 2021). Research shows that 67% of organisations failed during strategy execution (Carucci in Executives Fail to Execute Strategy Because They’re Too Internally Focused. https://hbr.org/2017/11/executives-fail-to-execute-strategy-because-theyre-too-internally-focused ) and up to 75% of large organisations have faced problems during strategy execution (Sull et al. in Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It. https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-strategy-execution-unravelsand-what-to-do-about-it ) resulting in significant opportunity costs (Safdari Ranjbar et al. in J. Strategy Manag. 7:127–154, 2014) and Real estate development organisations in Saudi Arabia are not an exception to this. There is a literature gap as no literature is available on strategy implementation or the study of strategy execution failures in real estate development organisations in Saudi Arabia. This research was conducted using a quantitative methods approach using surveys. Participants from 20 (out of 123) real estate development organisations (Real Estates Companies—Business Directory. http://www.eyeofriyadh.com/directory/category/14_real-estates-companies ) were approached using expert sampling followed by snowball sampling to gather survey data from 184 participants. Results were analysed using descriptive and inferential analysis with the aid of online using DataTab.net. This research was conducted using surveys. Participants from 20 (out of 123) real estate development organisations (Real Estates Companies—Business Directory. http://www.eyeofriyadh.com/directory/category/14_real-estates-companies ) were approached using expert sampling followed by snowball sampling to gather survey data from 184 participants. The findings of the survey confirmed that the nine strategy execution hurdles were applicable to the real estate development organisations in Saudi Arabia and the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard Management System could help these industries to overcome these hurdles. Considering the gap in the body of knowledge, the researcher’s original contribution to knowledge is the finding that there are nine strategy execution hurdles applicable to industries and geographies across the globe which apply to the real estate development organisations in Saudi Arabia. The nine strategy execution hurdles fall into three categories: Category 1—Related to Planning: (1) Non-involvement of the workforce, (2) Unclear strategic choices/ objectives, and (3) Rigid plan; Category 2—Related to Execution: (4) Misalignment, (5) Poor communication, (6) Ineffective initiatives management, and (7) Unclear responsibilities and accountabilities; and Category 3—Related to Enablers: (8) Improper change management, and (9) No strategy management framework.