EMart, the online portal for Dubai real estate market, has fetched Dh74.6 million ($20.3 million) in sales from its first online auction of 11 residential and commercial properties.

The portal was launched by the Dubai Land Department in November, to advance the emirate’s goals of efficient real estate operations that fulfill the highest levels of transparency and stakeholder rights, said a senior official of eMart.

Sultan Al Akraf, senior director of Real Estate Registration Services at the department, said these figures proved that Dubai’s real estate sector had achieved an exceptionally high ranking compared to its peers on the global map.

The residential and commercial properties in the auction had a starting price of Dh60 million and gradually exceeded Dh74.5 million, indicating a substantial increase of Dh14.5 million, stated Al Akraf.

The portal already received over 1,100 visits in the early hours of the first day of bidding, reflecting the high interest among real estate investors who gathered in the special lounge hosted by Dubai Land Department, he said.

Several large screens were set up to display the live auction and to brief guests on the user-friendly new interface that they can use online to make their bids.

EMart is expected to raise the standards of smart real estate services, giving the emirate a worldwide reputation for safeguarding the transparency and security of all transactions, while increasing access to the real estate market to a much wider audience of investors and other stakeholders, according to analysts. - TradeArabia News Service