Tag: real estate

AqarMap.com Launches New Version Based On User Feedback

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AqarMapAqarMap.com, the regional online real estate marketplace that was launched a few months ago, and that enables users to search for houses, apartments and land based on location, through satellite maps, has launched a new version.

According to numbers from AqarMap, they’ve grown quite well over the past few months, reaching a number of over 600 registered Real Estate companies and brokers, who are using the service and posting their properties on it.

The new version of the site aims to bring improved usability and more features for the users. The interesting thing is that all the enhancements and features in this new version were built on ideas and features requested by the early adopting users and clients of AqarMap, which makes it pretty much a crowd sourced effort.

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AqarMap.com A New Take At Real Estate eMarketplaces

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AqarMapWhile Real Estate owners continue to struggle to overcome the results of the financial crisis that hit them the hardest, and find themselves working harder to sell or rent their properties in today’s economy; you’d think that this wouldn’t really be the best time for someone to go ahead and launch a real estate portal.

However, I’m sure the founders of AqarMap would disagree, and would argue that it is at times like these that opportunities are created; I know because I had this discussion a few months ago with the CEO of AqarMap, Amad Almsaodi, who has been driving this effort.

The idea is that as things are currently quite tight for real estate companies and owners, and their marketing budgets aren’t what they used to be, they need more affordable and efficient marketing channels; and that is the spot AqarMap wants to establish itself in, launching to specifically target this demand with a new platform that tries to take a different and more innovative approach to matching sellers and buyers based on location.

What AqarMap aims to do is tackle the weakness in the regional addressing system by allowing real estate owners to precisely identify their properties using satellite maps; enabling buyers and renters to search the market by browsing an interactive map instead of using keywords.

Amad Almsaodi, CEO of AqarMap.com, says: “We built our marketplace by capitalizing on the Real Estate golden rule: Location, Location, Location. The price of a property is irrelevant if it is not in the customers preferred location. Customers can now search by location and find the nearby points of interest, such as: parks, schools, public transportation, …etc.”

AqarMap

Property owners can post their listings on AqarMap.com for free, and for a small fee they can promote their listings to gain higher visibility on the map, also enabling geo-targeting of potential clients to increase click-throughs.

AqarMap.com also uses a number of different technologies and services to empower its users; Google maps for location, YouTube for videos of properties, Twitter and Facebook to help share listings in social circles, as well as other services to translate content and convert numbers and currencies.

AqarMap is a service based out of Yemen, is currently available in both Arabic and English, and has already taken part in several regional competitions over the past period and won a number of awards.

Beeyoot, A New UAE Real Estate Property Listing Portal

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BeeyootBeeyoot is a new real estate listings website for the UAE, that was just launched into public beta, and which aims to connect property sellers directly to buyers and renters.

With the current downturn in the real estate market in the country, you’d think this wouldn’t really be best of times to launch a new real estate portal; but Beeyoot believes otherwise and are sure that their model putting property owners and buyers or sellers directly in touch with each other, without any intermediaries, creates room for a new momentum in the distressed real estate industry.

Beeyoot’s platform aims to help buyers and renters save on property searching costs by providing them with a free service, while enabling sellers or landlords to list their properties for a modest fee (AED 50 / USD $15 per month for the basic package), with the benefit of dealing with buyers and renters directly.

More advanced packages for users who want their properties featured more prominently and investors who have multiple properties are also available.

Beeyoot

The interface was designed to be simple and usable, in the same time providing users with quite a rich set of functionalities and filters to find what they’re looking for.

The portal’s services are currently exclusive to the UAE market, however they are planning to franchise the platform to other GCC countries.

The service is currently in beta, and is for a limited time allowing free basic property listings.

Beeyoot also has a blog called ‘The Glasshouse’ which will be featuring relevant information articles about the real estate in the UAE by industry specialists.

Accelarabia, Online Lending Portal For The Middle East

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AccelarabiaAccelarabia is an online portal with the goal to enable mortgage and loan seekers to compare the different options available out there, select the best product for their individual needs, pre-qualify and apply for it directly from the portal in real-time.

Users can also use the site to submit the documents required in order to complete their loan applications, and to follow all progress updates throughout the life of their application, getting instantly notified of any developments.

On the other hand, the portal helps providers of these products reach out to mortgage and loan seekers to obtain pre-qualified customers in a direct and efficient manner.

Accelarabia

 
Earlier this year, Accelarabia launched its Mortgage Automation Platform (MAP); providing banks, mortgage companies, and real estate developers an end-to-end fully automated loan origination solution. MAP encompasses all aspects of mortgage origination from capturing customer’s data, pre-qualifying customers on the fly, obtaining instant credit agency reports to contract generation through an intuitive workflow and document management system enabling mortgage originators to track loan application progress through dashboards, reports, and other management tools.

Accelarabia is based in Dubai, was founded in 2006, secured a first round of funding, and officially launched in early 2007, serving the UAE real estate market with over 10 lenders and 35 real estate partners as part of its network.

Their goal is to provide solutions and services to end-users, financial institutions and real estate companies in the Middle East enabling them to fully automate their origination and fulfillment processes.

# Accelarabia 

MSN Arabia Partners With Propertyfinder For Real Estate Listings

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Propertyfinder.ae, the popular UAE real estate web portal, and MSN Arabia have announced a new deal today, maximizing propertyfinder.ae’s exposure for real estate agents using their service and their listed properties.

The deal gives Propertyfinder.ae access to MSN Arabia’s large user base, a potential regional audience of more than 10 million unique visitors a month.

On the other hand, the added-value for MSN Arabia is the ability to offer their visitors quality real estate listings, to satisfy the demand for that kind of information by users, as property markets boom throughout the Arab region.

Propertyfinder - MSN ArabiaMSN Arabia is the only network with an international presence covering the Arab region, with a dual-language interface catering to all Arabic and English speakers in the MENA region. MSN Arabia is managed by LINKonLINE, a subsidiary of Orascom’s LINKdotNET.

Propertyfinder.ae specialises in real estate and investment in Dubai and offers agents and developers access to a potential global audience of 9 million unique visitors. Propertyfinder.ae is a subsidiary of REA Group and forms part of the global online real estate advertising company.

# MSN Arabia, Propertyfinder.ae

# Source: BI-ME

restate.ae, Dubai Real Estate Portal

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restate.ae is a web real estate portal dedicated to freehold and leasehold properties in Dubai, with the goal to act as a hub and bring people with different real estate needs together, whether they’re looking to live in Dubai, invest in real estate or sell properties.

The portal has a very nice, simple and usable design, integrating a wealth of features put together to provide users with in-depth real estate solutions, customized and advanced search to find what exactly suits their needs, access to other users’ opinions, neighborhood ratings, videos of properties and projects, the possibility to join discussions with other users, as well as the latest real estate news in the UAE.

restate.ae also offers agencies the possibility to list all their properties on the website, and through an administration interface manage their profiles, their properties, and assign agents to them.

All properties agencies list on the portal are then automatically republished to Google Real Estate.

It’s obvious that with the huge real estate boom taking place in Dubai, restate.ae has a really important and useful job to do, making life easier for everyone approaching this market.

restate.ae was launched in 2007 by Web 2.0 consultancy company SpinBits, and all its services are currently free, both for users and agencies.

# restate.ae