The real estate market is often fraught with challenges: hidden fees, undisclosed property histories and fraudulent listings that complicate transactions for buyers and sellers. In a dynamic market such as the UAE, navigating these intricacies can feel overwhelming.
Amid these challenges lies an opportunity to set new standards for trust.
Dubai, supported by Dubai Land Department, has cultivated a real estate ecosystem rooted in robust regulations, digital innovation and open data. But building trust requires contributions beyond regulation – private-sector stakeholders must also play their part.
Fibha Ahmed, vice president of property sales at Bayut, said: "At Bayut, our long-standing ambition has been to foster a more trustworthy and reliable property marketplace in the UAE. Increased levels of transparency are more critical than ever as we witness steady growth trajectories across Dubai and Abu Dhabi real estate markets.
"This is one of the key reasons why we launched TruBroker this year, a bespoke product that rewards agents who are responsive and authentic, both incredibly important parameters when it comes to a property seeker’s expectations. And the response to this product is a clear indicator that along with end users, brokers and agencies are also increasingly understanding the importance of transparency towards sustaining their success in a growing economy like ours.
"Within just three months of the launch, there are well over 2500 TruBrokers on Bayut today, showing how receptive real estate professionals are to improving efficiencies in a growing market.”
Building Trust and Confidence
The journey to enhancing trust begins with a sense of responsibility and a commitment to creating a user-friendly and trustworthy marketplace. “We felt a sense of responsibility very early on and often had extensive conversations during our meetings about creating a real estate marketplace that is not only efficient and user-friendly but also trustworthy and reliable,” Miss Ahmed said.
In early 2019, Bayut’s chief executive, Haider Khan, announced the launch of TruCheck, an industry-defining solution to tackle the issue of property-seekers being disappointed by fake listings. Since its launch, TruCheck has evolved into the epitome of trust in the industry. Authenticated listings with the TruCheck badge on our portal have increased 235 per cent in Q3 2024, compared to Q3 2023, helping agents broadcast the validity of their listings and enabling property seekers to easily eliminate inaccurate properties from their search.
In parallel, Bayut continues to collaborate with Dubai Land Department to fortify the push for authenticity through robust measures that ensure every listing on the platform meets the required standards.
“With a shared mission to safeguard consumer rights and prevent exposure to unreliable listings, we have initiated a comprehensive campaign to focus on proactively removing invalid listings from the Bayut portal," Miss Ahmed said. "Advanced algorithms and verification processes enable us to meticulously scrutinise each listing to confirm its legitimacy and weed out fraudulent content. In the past six months alone, we have removed 43,155 listings in Dubai, eliminating a substantial number of inaccurate listings.
“But this did not happen overnight. We had to take on the responsibility of thinking ahead, educating our partners about the importance of being authentic, innovating our products and services to become as user-friendly as possible, and ensuring that genuine content received the highest visibility on our platform.
"While we were the first in the industry to take a serious look at building a viable authentication solution, with the phenomenal growth our industry has experienced in the last 18 months, this is no longer an issue that can be overlooked,” she said.
Informed Decision-Making
Going beyond protecting consumer rights and preventing exposure to unreliable listings, Bayut is also committed to empowering customers to make informed decisions. To this end, its innovative features such as Dubai Transactions provide property-seekers with detailed real estate transaction data sourced straight from DLD. In addition, Bayut’s comprehensive information resources include more than 6,000 commercial and residential building guides, as well as more than 2,800 area and community guides – enabling users to navigate the market with confidence and peace of mind.
Miss Ahmed said: “We recognise that fostering increased levels of trust in real estate is an ongoing battle that requires constant vigilance and adaptation. But we will continue to shoulder this responsibility, working closely with industry stakeholders and government regulatory bodies to drive meaningful change and shape the future of real estate. Together, let’s build a future where trust and transparency define the UAE real estate experience for generations to come.”
