In the dynamic landscape of Dubai's real estate market, a significant challenge has emerged – and yet presenting an opportunity for transformation.
The issue revolves around advertising permits, particularly related to real estate developers' marketing agreements with brokers for offplan properties. It reached a stage where they were misused to create fake ads on online property portals that not only harm the market but significantly impact developers in terms of:
- The value of their sold projects, which can also impact developer reputations.
- Allowing ‘fake’ re-sale prices and fake inventory availabilities to compete and disturb the sales and marketing of available projects. Especially when outdated prices and available units remain live on real estate portals while their actual prices stand at higher rates and with much fewer available units.
The problem stems from the advertising of individual units based on vague marketing NoCs, or contracts between developers and real estate agents. These agreements lack crucial details, allowing brokers to set arbitrary prices and promote unavailable units, often misusing the marketing NoCs to attract buyers with unreasonably low prices on resale units.
Limit to the actual project, not units
To address this challenge, a crucial reform is needed. Online advertisements for offplan projects owned by developers should be restricted to the project level, eliminating the promotion of individual units. Developers are now reinforcing this by explicitly stating in their contracts and NoCs that brokers cannot use them to advertise individual units on property portals.
Most big developers are including in their marketing agreements with brokers clauses around the below lines:
"The Advertising No Objection Certificate (NOC) granted to agents is specifically for authorizing the advertisement of complete projects only and does not permit the advertisement of individual units on any real estate portal or similar platforms.
“This NoC is issued for marketing the entire project through all channels, including real estate portals. It is not to be used for advertising individual property units. Any breach of this clause will be considered a violation of the agreement, potentially leading to legal actions, including NoC revocation and other legal remedies."
What happens post-sale?
Post-sale, the responsibility for advertising individual properties transitions to the buyers who collaborate with brokers through a formal agreement governed by the Dubai Land Department and RERA. This official advertising permit ensures legitimacy and accuracy in property advertisements.
This transformative approach not only protects potential buyers from misleading ads but also safeguards the advertised re-sale prices of real estate projects in Dubai. It establishes a streamlined and transparent process for promoting properties in Dubai.
It's time to usher in a new era of precision and reliability in real estate advertising.
