Nowadays, the real estate market in Dubai is one of the most advanced and dynamic in the world. There are some factors affecting this tendency, in particular the growing city population, which is estimated at more than 2.5 million people.

The second factor is investment growth. Real estate investing in Dubai is more profitable than in other prestigious cities. The return on investment exceeds 6 %, that is one of the highest rates in the most profitable regions worldwide.

The rental yield is very high as well. On average, investors can earn a rental yield approximately 5-9%1. At the same time, the price per square meter is lower than in many other cities around the world. It makes Dubai an attractive place to buy luxury real estate, especially in comparison with Europe.

The third factor - geopolitical conditions. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and increasing problems in Russia, they arrived in Dubai to invest in real estate and protect it from Western sanctions. According to Betterhomes2, in 2022, more than 15% of real estate deals were concluded with Russian citizens, 12% with the British and 11% with Indians.  

However, the newspaper Business Standard3 reports that the leaders in buying real estate in Dubai for the past two years are Indians. The city attracts Indians with its convenient location, no income tax, world-class social infrastructure and a growing Indian community. Also Dubai real estate is popular with Italians, French, Pakistanis, Lebanese, Chinese, Americans and Canadians. A significant rivalry is the main reason for creation of low-quality real estate sites.

According to the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index for 2022, Dubai is considered to be the world's best investment market.This tendency is expected to continue in 2023.

All the factors mentioned above made an impact on сreating a large number of real estate companies. Since today the Internet is the main search tool for real estate there is a great rivalry among online platforms. New companies are constantly appearing nowadays. They strive to enter the market as quickly as possible by blundering.

As a rule of thumb, high speed and low price are the priority in the creation of a website. Nevertheless, quality, forethought, and a holistic approach are completely overlooked, although these are key components of the success of an online resource that should be profitable. Hastily created sites cannot stand competition with more serious competitors in the long run. Consequently the money invested in online marketing was wasted.

However, if you take a more professional approach to website creation, you can carve out a niche in the real estate industry and attract a large online audience. An analysis of the available resources on the network shows that this strategy is the most practical in the booming real estate market in Dubai.

 

Overview of common real estate websites creation mistakes (should not be done)

Monotypic, ill-conceived design

The first thing that the user pays attention to, going to the site, is the design. Even if you take a quick look at the real estate resources in Dubai, their pattern is conspicuous. Many companies use a combination of black and gold that is considered to be a sign of luxury and high status. Unsurprisingly, many designers choose, taking into consideration the cultural features and specifics of the real estate market in Dubai. There are nuances, though:

  • There are many sites of this type that are similar to each other.

  • The user cannot remember your site with such a design.

  • The combination of black and gold was in fashion about 15 years ago. Nowadays, even luxury brands and sites for the sale of high-end real estate prefer a lighter design.

  • Usually, real estate sites contain a large amount of information, a dark background makes it difficult to perceive.

There are a huge number of similar sites.They are almost indistinguishable from each other. At the same time, a well-thought-out, high-quality design allows the site to stand out, so that the user can remember what is especially important in the conditions of a large number of competing agencies. This is a calling card showing that the company takes its business seriously, respects customers, and does everything possible to make the search and selection process as comfortable as possible.

There is a professional saying: "Design is perfect when nothing more can be taken away". The deliberate design is clean and simple, with no extra details. However, it is always open to adding new useful elements.

  

Creating a landing page instead of a full-fledged multi-page site

A landing page is a specific page, created to increase conversion, i.e. the user's taking a specific action (calling or clicking on a link). Landing pages can be very useful for real estate agencies. For example, they can be used for targeted advertising of large or expensive properties that need to be sold urgently and the promotion needs to be launched quickly.

However, web studios often offer landing pages to agencies as a cheap alternative to a full site.They are usually created with low-quality, non-unique content. This works poorly or not at all for three reasons:

  • First of all, low-quality landing pages often contain very little information about the real estate company. It may look suspicious to customers planning a large financial investment, especially considering that the real estate industry is one of the most vulnerable to fraudulent schemes.

  • Secondly, organic SEO promotion (when the client finds the agency in the Google search list) with a landing page is simply impossible, due to the insufficient amount of content indexed by the search engine.

  • Thirdly, landing pages do not contribute to the development of the company. Landing pages are focused on quick sales, they do not promote the brand, do not make the user remember the site, are not designed for the long term.

Therefore, landing can be considered as an auxiliary tool for the quick sale of certain real estate objects. However, it will never be able to replace a full-fledged site for a real estate company that is set on further development.

  

Low-quality site programming

In an effort to minimize online marketing costs, some real estate companies try to skimp on website quality. This is how online-resources appear, made literally "on the knee". Many of them are created in Tilda. It's a simple web builder that doesn't require programming skills to use. In fact, Tilda can be considered as a useful tool for the development of one-page sites (landings), business card sites, test sites (which are sometimes launched to determine whether there will be demand for a particular product). However, it is not suitable for creating a multi-page site.

The website of the real estate agency must be of high quality and function properly, as it reflects the work of the company itself. Its mobile version is no less important. According to Google statistics, more than half of searches are performed from mobile devices, and this number will only increase over time. The same source reports that 53% of mobile website visitors leave if the page does not load within 3 seconds. Development of a high-quality mobile version of the site gives an opportunity not to lose potential customers.

Also, the loading speed of the mobile version is a criterion for ranking sites for Google itself. Therefore, sites that load slowly have little chance of appearing in the top of Google search results.

  

Bad object landing pages

The common mistakes made by website developers when creating real estate landing pages are:

  • unpresentable apartment photos or their complete absence (as in the example above);

  • lack of detailed information about the object;

  • lack of structuring of information (it is presented as a single block that is difficult for the user to understand);

  • lack of “unobtrusive selling" — a unique explanation of the advantages of each complex (this information helps a potential buyer make a decision).

The landing page is the first thing that users see when they click on a property ad. If the page is made poorly, the conversion rate (sales) drops.

  

Lack of information about the agency, reviews and the block "Why do you need to cooperate with us?"

The competition in the real estate market in Dubai is very high, so it is important to have differentiating features that will allow users to distinguish a real estate company from the many others. There is a tendency that  agencies are in a hurry to put a description of real estate objects on the site, without providing any information about themselves. At the same time, potential buyers want to know who they are going to work with and whether this company can be trusted.

That is why it is important to talk about the agency's experience, work methods and services it offers. Agent photos help create an emotional connection with the site visitor and inspire more trust.

One more important point: customer reviews about the agency's work. According to New Reach Marketing:

  • 89% of users read online reviews before purchasing a product;

  • 93% of users make purchase decisions based on online reviews;

  • only 9% of consumers would consider working with a company that has an average rating of 1 or 2 stars.

All this indicates the importance of using online reviews as an effective tool for attracting customers.

   

  

Lack or improper blogging

A blog is an effective tool for website marketing. It attracts so-called organic traffic (passing users from a search form, not from an advertisement). This is a crucial point for SEO (search engine optimization). Google "loves" when new relevant content appears on the site with a clear regularity. Such resources usually get priority in search results, and, accordingly, traffic and new potential customers.

A blog can be compared to a 24/7 free seller of company services. In addition, blog articles show customers the company's activities, its approach, its experience and successes, increasing trust and making the brand more recognizable.

Successful real estate sites in Dubai are constantly filling the blog with information that will be useful to people looking for real estate and can attract them to the site. But again, it is critical to do this with constant regularity, for example, always 2 posts per week.

 Other firms neglect this promotion tool, which certainly affects the success of their online marketing. Some web developers find completely strange solutions, filling the blog with unnecessary articles that are not related to the topic of real estate. It is clear that such a "strategy" will not work.

  

BRAB: Creation and promotion of real estate sites in Dubai

BRAB integrated online marketing agency will help you avoid common mistakes when creating real estate sites in highly competitive conditions. We create projects that will help you stand out among the huge number of real estate sites. The right approach to the organization of digital marketing helps to increase the number of potential buyers, spend the budget efficiently and firmly occupy your niche in the booming market for real estate sales in Dubai.