Before new rules on listings take effect in October, Dubai’s property portals are raising their advertising rates.
“The hikes have been by 3-4x times of what ad listings were just last week,” said Mohammad Imran Khan of Atomic Properties, an estate agent. “This definitely impacts our business in terms of lead generation.”
Sources confirm that some of the top real estate listing websites have raised their rates or plan to do so soon. The power of portals has increased as a result of recent modifications to Dubai’s property advertising regulations.
The number of brokers and agencies permitted to represent and list any given property has been restricted by regulations issued last week by the Dubai Land Department (typically those sold in the secondary market). As of October, there can only be a total of three agents involved in any one transaction for every such listing.
These ads will have to mention permissions that require prior Land Department approval. The modifications will effectively stop more than three agents from marketing the same property at the same time. And after a sale, all listings must be taken down as soon as possible.
“The Dubai authorities are bringing in greater transparency to the marketing and sale of property,” said an estate agent. “Requiring prior permits and, now, capping the agents per property is part of the changes.”
Sudden hikes
After this, it was expected that real estate portals would raise their advertising costs. This was done because the new rules would have reduced the number of listings by numerous brokers. Portals would have had to make up the difference by raising their per-listing fees. Brokers, however, thought that would happen only by the next month.
“We are currently in negotiation with portals to allow some flexibility,’ said Khan. “They had earlier such we can continue to service our clients and bring in investment to the real estate sector. These increases would squeeze our margins as the conversion ratio from leads is already at a low percentage. We hope for a favorable compromise.”
“The hikes have been by 3-4x times of what ad listings were just last week – this definitely impacts our prospects” – Mohammad Imran Khan of Atomic Properties.
