Real to virtual: Buying and selling property online

Real to virtual: Buying and selling property online

Real estate is one sector that appears to have resisted the indelible disruption that has redefined other, traditional sectors like mobility and food and beverage. The process of buying, renting or selling property is still largely conducted offline, but as the coronavirus pandemic has restricted movement, demand for a distanced approach to finding property is on the rise, paving the way for greater digitisation in the sector.

"There's a big movement happening globally for real estate portals,“ says Amad Almsaodi founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Egypt-based Aqarmap. 

These portals have slowly developed from the classified advertising business model, purely listing property available to rent or sell, to a marketplace where users can conduct various transactions online. Both models are still successful, in fact UAE-based Emerging Markets Property Group, which owns Bayut, Mubawab and Zameen emerged as the region's latest unicorn and merged earlier this year with the OLX group, owners of Dubizzle, to lead the classifieds sector in a region where the aggregated value of properties sold is estimated at $90 billion.

Around the world, different models have emerged to buy and sell property online. In the UK, Purple Bricks has digitised the real estate agent, in the US, Zillow has the