Dubai: The UAE’s property market has seen its first consolidation move since the COVID-19 outbreak, with the brokerage firm Luxhabitat going in for a deep alliance with Gulf Sotheby’s.
This will result in the sales and operations teams at both companies joining forces. The
10-year partnership agreement extends to design, branding, marketing and technology.
The new platform will also be co-branded to “combine the market strengths of both companies and increase brand awareness, market share, and customer loyalty”.
There are a few synergies the two entities can draw upon – both have their strengths in curating and selling high-end properties. Luxhabitat has had transactions involving super-premium Emirates Hills villas as well as those on the Palm and elsewhere.
Expanded entity
The combined entity will have a sales team of 75 plus brokers. There were no redundancies, according to a company spokesperson.
“Real estate players are facing an environment that requires them to focus on value-creation to remain competitive,” said Oriol Font, CEO of Luxhabitat.
The depth of complementary expertise from both companies will enable us to better serve our increasingly demanding clientele. We look forward to continuing our growth trajectory with a new business model focused on enabling traditional players with our marketing and technology expertise in real estate.”
A new deal
For Gulf Sotheby’s the new deal should more than compensate for an earlier deal that saw it acquire another Dubai-based brokerage firm, SPF Realty. But last year, SPF and Gulf Sotheby’s decided to de-merge citing market conditions.
Of Luxhabitat, George Azar, Chairman of Gulf Sotheby’s International Realty, said: “We couldn't be more excited to announce this partnership as the best deal we have done in the history of this firm. Both brands represent and compete for a comprehensive share in the luxury realty sector.
“And yet, we are extremely similar in our brand identity, market positioning and sales apparatus. It's a perfect alignment that makes us the only luxury realty brokerage in the market today.”
