After buying a property, it doesn't take long before you are contacted by supposed real estate specialists who would like to sell the property and also already have a potential buyer - which is often not true at all.

You wonder from where real estate agents get your personal contact information, such as cell phone number or e-mail address?

In Dubai, lists of property owners are actively sold. However, brokers are not actually allowed to contact owners directly, and selling such lists is also prohibited. In April 2022, nine brokers were even suspended for three months. They were not allowed to make any more transactions. In addition, the brokers had to pay a fine of AED 50,000. However, so-called "cold calling" continues to be practiced on a daily basis despite the high fine and suspension. As a property owner, there is a mixture of a good feeling that one's property is well positioned in the market and an uneasy feeling that my address is "circulating" publicly.

Besides "cold calling", so-called "fake listings" are a widespread method of customer acquisition in the Dubai real estate market. In "fake listings", apartments or villas are published in the major real estate portals that either do not exist or are not for sale at all. In this way, local brokers hope to generate new contacts and win them over with other offers.

Why do the brokers go about it this way?

Not only is the real estate market in Dubai growing, but so is the number of brokers. In the last five years, the number of real estate agents has more than doubled - from 4,777 active agents to 12,551 in 2023!

Many young prospects are coming to Dubai to try their luck in the real estate market! Getting into the "brokerage business" is easy. Real estate companies hire young brokers with no base salary, making the risk naturally low and one-sided. This means that many of the local real estate employees neither have experience in the real estate business nor do they know Dubai.

We ourselves have also noticed that since 2021, more and more real estate companies are active in Dubai - not only local ones, but also real estate companies that have also focused on investors in the DACH region. What was once a niche market has now become a highly competitive one.

Our advice to you - Be careful! Brokers like to promise you the blue of the sky and are very fond of talking about a "once in a lifetime" investment opportunity. Listen to your gut feeling and don't let yourself be persuaded to anything where you can't stand behind it 100%. We are here for you and will be happy to give you honest advice.

Your Terra Nova Real Estate Team