Swift success for luxury real estate site

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This article is from Arabian Business:LuxuryRealEstate.com, the website which provides access to the world’s largest database of for-sale luxury properties from around the globe, has already signed up five developers and two brokers since it went live in the Middle East on 21 January this year.“The developers we have formed partnerships with since we went live are The Palisades, Pearl Projects, City of Arabia, ETA Star and First Qatar Real Estate,” Paul McGrath, Regional Sales Director for Luxury Real Estate told Arabian Business. “The brokers are Luxury City Real Estate and Safa Homes, which are two of the top brokers in the region.”The website currently lists 19 Dubai properties and McGrath estimates: “We will have an additional 30 to 40 Dubai property listings coming online in the next month. Meanwhile, we are currently in talks with 32 additional developers from the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt, who we will most probably have signed up by the end of the year.”McGrath said that now was the right time for LuxuryRealEstate.com to launch in the Middle East: “Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are cities that are working hard to establish themselves as luxury destinations in the Middle East and the easiest and most efficient way for them to advertise is through the internet. So the decision to launch the site here became a very obvious one.”LuxuryRealEstate.com, which received 65 million hits in January alone, is the most-viewed luxury real estate website in the world according to the Alexa Internet ranking service. John Brian Losh, CEO of LuxuryRealEstate.com, speaking at the second World CEO Forum held at the Park Hyatt Dubai, observed: “Today 85-90% of potential home buyers go straight to the web to buy luxury property because the web empowers them.”James Magee, founder of the World CEO Forum and CEO of ITD Group, who announced a partnership with LuxuryRealEstate.com recently, told Arabian Business: “The internet provides 24/7 global exposure at a fraction of the price of what it would cost to advertise worldwide through traditional advertising vehicles.People are already going nuts with the searches on Dubai so I certainly think it’s going to be a question of who’s not on there as opposed to who is on there within six months.”Magee believes another reason why property companies are seeking international exposure is because “the property market has slowed down a little.“I know from talking to representatives of Nakheel, Landmark, Safa Homes and Emaar, that all those companies want international exposure now. I think that’s why Emaar bought Hamptons and Jones Lang LaSalle; they want to be associated with luxury real estate internationally.”Magee added that all the Gulf developers who have signed up to the website have been invited to the annual Luxury Real Estate Convention in Florida.