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Dubai real estate developer Damac Properties has signed an exclusive deal with a Chinese property broker in a bid to target investors from the Far East.
Ziad El Chaar, Damac’s managing director, signed a deal with Beijing-based property broker 5i5j, who will promote the Dubai firm’s 37,000 pipeline of properties to the Chinese market.
“They have 30,000 sales people. They sell a unit every four minutes,” Niall McLoughlin, Damac’s senior vice-president, told The National newspaper. “We have 22 of their senior people here. They are being inducted into Dubai and Damac on a three-day programme. They will go back to China and sell Dubai.”
The number of Chinese visitors to Dubai soared 25% year-on-year in 2014, to 344,329, according to the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), becoming the emirate’s seventh-largest source market.
In a recent interview with Arabian Business, El Chaar said Damac is targeting Chinese for both its hotels and real estate projects, focusing on the three largest cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as the northern city of Urumqi, home to China’s largest Muslim population. “[The Chinese Muslims] on their way to Makkah, pass through Dubai, so they’re a growing, important part of the tourism in Dubai,” El Chaar said.
