propertyfinder.ae Grows Despite Economic Woes

2008 has been a big year for Dubai based propertyfinder.ae, and it has just celebrated its first birthday as part of the REA Group, who acquired the portal in November 2007.

The company began its life as AlBabWorld.com, a portal that was established by Michael Lahyani and Leonard Dionisotti in 2005. It was relaunched last November as propertyfinder.ae after the REA Group purchased a 51% share of the company for US$1 million and injected US$2.1 million of equity into the venture.

According to a press release posted on zawya.com, the company has achieved remarkable growth in the past year: traffic grew from just 7000 unique visitors per month in January 2008 to over 70,000 unique visitors to the site per month (September 2008, Google Analytics). It expanded to Abu Dhabi and the rest of the UAE from Dubai and launched an Arabic version of the site in June. In addition, in 2008 propertyfinder.ae partnered with leading news portals MSN Arabia and Maktoob.

And despite reports of the grim economic conditions finally hitting the UAE, CEO Michael Lahyani remains optimistic. He was quoted as saying:

“We believe the difficult global economy will convince developers and agents to shift more of their advertising money to the web, as they realize it is more cost-effective, provides greater reach and is more measurable than print or other means of marketing. When marketing departments face budget restrictions, they naturally turn to the web, and to propertyfinder.ae”.

Reflecting the amount of foreign investment in the UAE property market, 57% of visitors to propertyfinder.ae are from outside the Middle East.

1. propertyfinder.ae Partners with Maktoob

   propertyfinder.ae, the UAE's leading property portal, has announced a partnership deal with maktoob.com, one of the Middle East's leading Arablic news portals with 9.6 million unique visitors each month. propertyfinder.ae is part of the REA Group and is entering strategic partnerships to help provide a growing regional audience with upto date real estate information and property listings from the UAE. Read on for more ... ...

2. REA Group Sells Stake in propertyfinder.ae

   The REA Group has exited the Dubai market by selling its 51% stake in propertyfinder.ae to its joint venture partner, the Swiss Media Group. The REA Group purchased 51% of Propertyfinder.ae in October 2007 with the objective of driving strong growth on online real estate advertising in the Gulf Region. The sales continues the retreat of the REA Group to its core Australian business....

3. Make an Offer at propertyfinder.ae

   propertyfinder.ae, the leading property portal for the United Arab Emirates, has just released a feature that allows users to submit price proposals on listings. propertyfinder.ae says the new “make an offer” tool is aimed at eliminating the haggling and time involved in buying or leasing a property. The portal has noticed a tendency for some properties to receive a great deal of traffic but few enquiries while others see high turnover, which it attributes to more realistic pricing. ...

4. propertyfinder.com Takes on primelocation.com with Premium Property Site

   The stock market might be taking everyone for a roller coaster ride, but propertyfinder.com are clearly remaining optimistic, with the launch of a “premium” portal designed to hit the top end of the property market: propertyfinder.com/premium. The question is will this site take on primelocation, the current market leader in premium properties....

5. propertyfinder.com

   propertyfinder.com is the second of the UK’s Big 4 property portals. It is owned by the REA Group and News Limited. ...