Looking ahead

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “How’s business?” and my response usually involves the one-word reply, ‘good’.

But 2014 in many ways has truly been a remarkable year — both for the industry, and in turn, propertyfinder. For one, the price growth is slowing down and reflecting a market that is prizing long-term stability over quick gains.

As for our business, our guiding force is our mission: to deliver a superior user experience bringing ease and transparency whilst connecting people to the right properties. Over the year, one of the things we’ve focused on is to help brokers stay connected with clients and grow their business whilst they’re out and about. We’re excited about going mobile and how it’s transforming the consumer experience, and we look forward to enhancing our newly released iPhone and Android app.

When I look around, I’m amazed at how deeply the Internet has burrowed into our social fabric that it’s hard to recall what life was like without it. If we can enable people to become more empowered to make the best possible real estate decisions, we can build a platform that creates enduring value for them and a strong company as well.

As one of the biggest property portals in the region, we want to take the lead in working with the real estate industry to improve data quality on all levels. It has always been our goal to display the most accurate listings information to home buyers and renters. That said, data accuracy is a complex challenge. In order to achieve this, we need to ensure that prices and the current level of stock on our site match with the reality of the market. We’re always looking to leverage technology to help us achieve this, but sometimes you also need some old fashioned elbow grease. So, we spend a lot of time analysing the site, checking for errors, quality of images and responding to clients and site users’ complaints. Behind our push for quality real estate information is also a large team of dedicated developers and customer support and quality control managers who and mystery shopping practices that ensure that only the right information gets published on the site. This drives value for everyone in the real estate ecosystem.

Prices have fallen for the first time in four years, regulation is strong and even the IMF has stated that risks have decreased. The next step then is to win consumer confidence. Publishing truthful property information online is key to achieving this. I’d like to thank you all for helping us get so far. And I’m truly excited to build and deliver greater experiences together.

The writer is the Deputy CEO of propertyfinder.ae. Views expressed by him are his own and do not reflect the newspaper’s policy.