Duplicate listings within the UAE’s online real estate market are costing the industry at least Dh1 billion ($272 million) per year, according to a software technology expert.

"It is a major headache in our industry, and evidence suggests that the Dh1 billion our team has calculated is likely a conservative figure," stated Daniel Hart, the chief executive of Masterkey, the leading UAE real estate management software.

Hart was speaking at the recent Real Estate Brokers programme in the Cityscape Global Conference where he discussed the huge amount of time, money and resources wasted from duplicate listings.

The expert and his team reached at the Dh1-billion figure by taking into consideration the amount of time, overheads and additional marketing expenses that companies incur when duplicate listings are published.

Hart said it was based on publicly available data published by the Land Department and conservative estimates obtained from a wide array of brokers regarding the amount of duplication involved.

Masterkey launched the Middle East’s first Multi Listing System (MLS) in the UAE in 2014, but has now made the MLS accessible through both of its software applications, providing a centralised location for agents to add their listings, and view others listings to avoid duplicate listings.

"The software we have built is designed to strengthen the relationship between the broker and the property seller by encouraging sellers to list with one agent and not several competing agencies," said Hart.

This new enabled software allows real estate agencies to save time and money, increase profit margins and provide an accurate overview of the current market because data will be entered correctly in one space, explained the official.

“As the UAE moves towards a more regulated market, our MLS will bring agents together instead of competing against one another,” he added.  

Hart spoke as part of a panel discussion during the Real Estate Brokers programme, which centred on the changes and rationale in the regulation to aid the standardisation of the real estate market.

The others in the panel included experts such as Dounia Fadi, the chief executive of Elysian Real Estate, Klaus Holscher, the managing director of Kensington Finest Properties International and the host Mario Volpi, the head of Projects of Asteco Property Management.

The panel addressed the various challenges the market faces as well as the Dh1-billion issue and how duplicate listings are contributing to this number.

When the team behind Masterkey developed and launched Airlist.com in February 2015, they created a free platform for all registered agents to manage their properties in one space, drastically reducing the time it takes to post listings across dozens of property portals.  

The technology was welcomed by agents and portals alike, because of the website’s ability to rapidly distribute listings, increase website traffic and help manage agents’ expansive portfolio of properties available for sale and lease, said Hart.

"The launch of Airlist saw us hold many conversations with the key decisions makers and the agents on the ground to truly understand their day-to-day working frustrations and how our software could help them," he noted.

"The overriding issue which came up repeatedly was that of duplicate listings. As such, we’re making it just one of our missions to help clean up the online property space in the UAE and create data which is truly representative of the market," he added.-TradeArabia News Service