MANY REAL ESTATE COMPANIES SAY THAT THEY BUILD AND SELL THE BEST REAL ESTATE IN THE MARKET. WHAT IS SMART HOME PROPERTIES DIFFERENTLY DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS? WHAT DOES IT OFFER IN THE DUBAI REAL ESTATE MARKET? ASHRAF FARADJ, CHAIRMAN OF THE MANAGEMENT COMPANY OF SMART HOME PROPERTIES, ANSWERED THESE AND OTHER QUESTIONS TO THE CORRESPONDENT OF OUR MAGAZINE.
Mr. Ashraf, please tell me how long have you been engaged in the construction and sale of real estate?
Our company Smart Home Properties was created, in general, recently - in 2002. The goal of the company was to manage our own real estate projects. We faced certain difficulties in finding a reliable and professional company that could manage our real estate. The main problem was that the companies with which we had previously worked, did not fulfill their obligations and misled our customers. Therefore, I decided to create my own company, which would carry out professional management of our projects. This allowed us to work directly with customers, without any intermediaries.
That is, the main activity of Smart Home Properties was originally property management?
Exactly. Not only the real estate built by our company, but also the private homes of people who contacted us, and outside of Dubai. In 2002, immediately after the passage of the law authorizing the sale of real estate to foreign citizens in Dubai, I decided to engage in the sale and purchase of real estate on the basis of freeholds. Since I myself have an engineering degree and more than 17 years of experience in the field of civil engineering, I am well versed in what is happening in the modern real estate market.
My knowledge also allows me to understand both the quality of building materials and the construction market. In 1995, our family-owned construction company was created, which still operates in the Dubai market. That is, today, on the one hand, I am a consultant in matters of real estate management, its design and marketing, on the other, I am a builder, and on the third, a person who is engaged in real estate investment.
What are the secrets of your success in such a competitive and dense real estate market as Dubai?
You correctly noted that the competition in the Dubai market is very high. But how to differ from the rest, the best developers and realtors in their field? I have asked this question more than once. Opening a new company in an existing market is always difficult. But thanks to my experience in civil engineering, it was not so difficult for me. I knew exactly how many facilities were planned to be built in Dubai at that time on the basis of freehold rights, and what is the demand for such facilities. Moreover, I realized that it is very important to market such a project or real estate projects that would be qualitatively different from others already approved on paper or under construction.
Speaking about quality, please explain why some projects look amazing in the pictures, and not at all when property owners receive keys from it?
It all depends on the integrity of the developer and his commitment to quality standards and his promises. I will tell you honestly, the Dubai municipality has set such strict and high quality standards for building and finishing materials, which, perhaps, are not found anywhere in the world. By definition, low-grade products cannot enter the Dubai construction market. Another thing is that the developers promise to use in the decoration of the premises, for example, tiles and sanitary ware from one manufacturer, say, a European one, but in fact they install the same thing, but made in China or Taiwan. Outwardly, both look good, but the quality is somewhat different. Buyers should pay attention to this.
What distinguishes your property from other projects? What makes buyers pay attention to your projects?
First of all, I would call our advantages over others: honesty, delivery of facilities on time, specifications and the highest quality of work at all stages of the construction of the building. Secondly, it is customer service, after they have purchased real estate. All this is of great importance. In 2006, I went to study to get a master's degree in quality management. This allowed me to take a fresh look at many things that I had not paid any attention to before. This helped me to understand that any business is closely connected with customer relations, which over time become your regular and loyal customers. This is a great skill - to attract a client and keep him for a long time. Honestly, this is the art of being different from competitors and working so that end-users and investors trust you and your company.
Therefore, my first freehold project appeared on the market at the right time, and in the right place. When I started designing my Elegant Tower office building, I realized that I had to introduce something unique to the market that wasn’t in the territories Nakheel was developing in Dubai. My tower is located in the new urban area of Jumeirah Village South (Circle), whose general developer is Nakheel. It is in this area that there is nothing like my tower.
The uniqueness of the Elegant Tower is that for the first time, not only in Dubai, but also in the Middle East region, I proposed the concept of two-story office premises (the so-called duplexes) in a building with a height of 40 floors. Two-story apartments are not a novelty for the city, but nobody built such offices before us. I increased the efficiency of the tower by the fact that every second floor has no corridors, since there are extensions of offices. There are no elevators and service rooms on these floors. The second point that allowed me to significantly optimize construction costs, while not saving on quality, is the lack of basement floors. This is also unique to the UAE, where there are practically no tall buildings without basements, in which technical services and parking lots are located. Instead, four podium floors were created in my tower to accommodate cars.
The trick is that in the UAE there are a lot of underground lakes and springs with water, despite the fact that it is a desert. Therefore, during the construction of underground floors, many developers are faced with the problem of sudden water leaks, and it is almost impossible to establish the exact place from where it penetrates the basements. As you know, this at times raises the cost of further operation of the building. I thought about this before the start of design and saved more than 45 million dirhams on the construction, having received all the necessary permits for such a project.
Elegant Tower features a unique exterior design. It is very wide at the base, then tapers in the middle and expands upward again. And where the floor area is not large (these are the middle floors), the concept of two-story offices fit in perfectly. I took a direct part in the design of Elegant Tower, and was very pleased with the result, as it turned out to be a really “smart” design.
By the way, your company is also called Smart Home Properties, which can be translated both as “smart real estate” and as “smart home”. Did you specifically choose this name?
In general, yes. And we confirm it with our daily work. After all, everything that we do today falls under the definition of “smart real estate”. In our project, everything is thought out to the smallest detail, we provide our investors and future tenants with the opportunity to install "smart home" systems in their offices. All the necessary communications for this are in the tower, but their owners will decide on the installation in each individual office.
You were not puzzled by such a problem as "green" construction, which is now being discussed not only in the UAE, but throughout the world?
I not only thought about it, but also planned to build an Elegant Tower using green technologies. We were negotiating with a German company about the supply of special cladding glass for a building that would work like a solar panel and would supply the entire tower with energy. Unfortunately, the negotiations dragged on, and at the time the tower was officially launched on the market, no final decision was made, and it was too late to remake the project after launch. But we left this idea for later, since the company plans to erect residential buildings, where these technologies will be applied, which will significantly reduce the consumption and consumption of electricity and water.
When will your residential buildings appear on the market?
Very soon, since, judging by the sales of our Elegant Tower, demand, and, accordingly, prices for interesting projects in Dubai, continues to grow. I personally believe that the Dubai real estate market will continue its development for another ten years. And even if it will not be as fast as it is today, and the prices will stabilize a little, thanks to the commissioned houses and offices, the need to build new modern and original projects will not go anywhere. Moreover, we still have a debut with "green" buildings. In addition, I am sure that not only such large developers as Emaar, Nakheel and Dubai Properties can surprise investors and buyers with their projects. Private developers, such as our company, will still have their say in decorating Dubai with new and extraordinary urban solutions. I will not say platitudes that Dubai is ahead of many cities and countries in the number of planned and under construction projects of elite residential, commercial and commercial real estate, but today the attention of the whole world is riveted to us, and this is obligatory.
Allow me to wish you success, and look forward to the appearance of your new projects.
