This article was originally published in Propertyfinder Trends 2017, Vol 3.
Why the journey makes it the most mature market in the region?
You can’t be more regal than the king. Those words of advice from my early days here at Propertyfinder still stick with me, even seven years later. Coming from Sydney, where I worked at the REA Group (owners of realestate.com.au, plus other leading property portals around the world including at one-time propertyfinder.ae), I was accustomed to working in a transparent real estate market where best practice had been honed over decades, and even centuries, of property law.
The UAE was a completely different proposition. Its freehold real estate market was truly in its infancy in 2010. Exclusive listings were almost unheard of. A wisdom of more agents equals more chances to sell dominated. The old bait and switch were commonplace. One would have to call ten agents to speak to three and two of them would say, oh that one just sold, what are you looking for…? The consumer experience wasn’t great. We were aware of these issues at Propertyfinder. But we couldn’t be more regal than the king. We had to work within the reality of the market. In 2010 we were a significant player in the UAE property market, but we didn’t have over 60% of the market share and the influence that we do today. Regardless of our size, our strategy has always been to encourage better practice and promote the professional operators in the market. If it’s good for the consumer, it’s good for the industry, and ultimately for us. Our first rule at propertyfinder.ae: no private advertisers, no freelancers, no Simsars. Even licensed individual agents could only list via an official real estate brokerage account which had been signed by the CEO/authorised signatory with a company stamp and paid for in company PDCs. Everyone paid to advertise on propertyfinder.ae. No free trials. No price discounting on core property listing subscription products. These policies still hold today. But this wasn’t enough. Many of the licensed brokerages in the market at the time were a big part of the problem. So we adopted the carrot approach. Encourage better practice; publish 10 photos; full location details, property descriptions and property features, receive better ranking. Brokers who spammed the site, and/or received a lot of confirmed consumer complaints were pushed back in the ranking. Those who published quality photos, virtual tours and received good feedback from our consumer surveys were pushed ahead. We even ghost called every brokerage, every month to ascertain whether the properties they were advertising were actually available.
Our strategy has always been to encourage better practice and promote the professional operators in the market.
We launched the annual Propertyfinder Awards in 2013. Two of the main awards Best Brokerage Service and Best Newcomer were based upon an in-depth analysis into the company’s operation. We rewarded companies who offered consumers the best service and raised professional standards in our industry. In 2014 we launched a free Veri ed listings service. Here brokers were encouraged to submit supporting documents to prove that had the right to advertise the property. These were pushed to the front of the search and were rotated on our home page. Veri ed listings could achieve one thousand times more views than a regular undocumented listing. As such they encouraged conversations about proper documentation between broker and vendors and between management and agents. This past year, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) introduced Trakheesi. A system where agents needed to provide proof that they had completed all legally required paperwork with the property owner before marketing any properties for sale or for rent. A concept similar in its objective to our Veri ed listings. The market today is very different. In 2011 the average propertyfinder.ae client had 278 listings on our site on any given day. Today it’s less than one-third of that while the number of real estate brokerages and developers advertising on propertyfinder.ae has increased fivefold during the same period. These changes haven’t happened overnight. It’s been a 10-year slog. We had A LOT of resistance along the way. Now, the UAE is home to the most mature property market in the region, and we’re proud to have been a part of its evolution. Change doesn’t happen overnight and you can’t be more regal than the king. Click here to read the full report online (Adobe Flash required) or click here to download the PDF. To request a printed copy, drop us a line at marketing@propertyfinder.ae
Lukman Hajje Chief Commercial Officer, Propertyfinder Group
