Realty Force Real Estate — SME Case Study (UAE)

Realty Force Real Estate Brokers is a top real estate company in Dubai that is focused on providing services to consumers such as investment consultancy services, leasing, and sale of properties, as well as the resale of properties as provided to it by consumers. The company is known for its ability to generate a strong level of deals with the real estate industry of the country by providing consumers with a combination of consultancy as well as property management services that have allowed it to develop a prominent position in the region. In addition to this, the accessibility that the company has been able to develop over the years, providing clients with VIP locations and properties, has also made it a prominent company within the UAE industry.

Realty Force Real Estate Figure 51 – Realty Force company logo Further, the real estate company (Figure 86) is known for the services that it provides, being focused on the areas of The Villa Project, Al Waha Project, and Mudon; in Business Bay, The Executive Towers, Bay Square and Clover Bay; in Downtown, Old Town, Sanctuary Falls, Jumeirah Golf Estates and Jumeirah Village Circle across Dubai, where it has the most new and resale properties in the market.

Mission and Vision Statement The mission and vision of the company is to ensure that it can generate long lasting relationships with consumers and hence, be able to provide the market with a strong level of value, excellent properties, and investments that would provide these consumers with a strong level of returns.

In addition to this, the brand is also known for its strong knowledge that it provides to consumers in the industry and how it communicates to investors, providing them with the relevant knowledge of how to get started in the real estate industry.

Organizational Structure

The company has a rather flexible organizational structure with no hierarchy and currently comprises both part-time and full-time real estate consultants that form an integral part of the organization. This has also allowed the company to ensure that it is able to expand from local to international markets that they currently operate in as well as wide the audience base to international clients.

As seen in the diagram below, the company follows a flexible organizational structure, which means that each group in the organization is divided into different departments of sales, finance, marketing, research, and development as well as processing and actual retail units with multiple reporting points.

Flexible Organization Structure Product hierarchy Department hierarchy Work Station hierarchy Products Center Group Departments Time Work Stations Figure 52: Flexible Organizational Structure Currently, the organization has a team of more than 500 real estate agents who work on full-time, part-time, freelance, or commission basis. The company ensures that it follows a stringent procedure when it comes to hiring employees in the organization, in terms of their experience, mindset, and contribution that they can make.

Based on this, it can be said that the brand does not follow any functional or divisional structure in the company and is hence able to benefit from a higher level of flexibility that it must carry out tasks and seek clients from different audience groups.

Leadership Team The leadership of the company is strongly focused on being able to create an optimistic environment and to ensure that the strategies of the company are in alignment with the goals of the property market in the country. The leadership is strongly focused on promoting values of growth and networking in the community through providing real estate support to the investors in the region. In addition to this, the leadership is based on the dynamics identified through the case study analysis, indicating how there is a presence of a transformational leadership style, which allows employees to be highly motivated and inspired to make contributions to the company. Hence, it can be seen as to how the leadership and support through human resources remains to be a vital competitive advantage for Realty Forces Real Estate.

Figure 53: Elements of Transformational Leadership

Currently, the company has three major products that it provides to consumers. The first is the ability to seek investment consultancy services in the organization. The second product is that it can sell the best properties in the UAE market. In terms of the new properties, the company specializes in being able to provide consumers with contracts for off-plan properties in the region as it allows consumers to purchase and invest into real estate with limited funds. Based on this, the real estate company is also able to generate a higher level of income as it has access to a wide audience base and investors. The third major product of the company is how it can gain clients in the UAE market to resell the old properties within the industry. Properties that already exist in the UAE market have a strong scope of increasing the market capitalization values and hence, through these purchases and sales, the company can generate a higher level of commission that it can make through such deals.

Currently, for both off-plan as well as resale properties, the company can gain deals from many developers in the market such as Emaar, Damac, Dubai Properties, Meydan, or Meraas.

The current business strategy of the company relies upon differentiation for consumers by providing them with unique value. Contrary to the other companies in the region that provide support to the consumers, real estate also serves as an investment consultancy providing support to consumers who are investing for the first time or have ambiguity of how they would be navigating through the real estate market of the country.

These aspects have allowed the company to be able to position itself in a unique niche within the market as consumers often seek a high level of support when making investments in the real estate industry.

Present products as superior in “Quality”, “Function” & “Features” Marketing plan must persuade consumer of superiority Differentiation Strategy Figure 54: Elements of Differentiation Strategy

The real estate company operates on a business model of fixed income as well as a commission basis. From the perspective of fixed income, the company’s services relate to providing consultancy services as well as property management aspects to consumers. From the perspective of commissions, the brand can generate sales using new and existing resale properties that it makes available to consumers.

Real Estate Consultancy Sales of old and off plan properties Property Management Figure 55: Components of the company business model In terms of the human resource strategies of the company, the brand ensures that it hires employees who have a strong skill set as well as the zeal to enhance their career within the field of real estate, such as strong communication skills. Further, the hiring practices of the company are also focused on being able to develop strong connections with real estate agents as the company thrives on providing training and development mechanisms to employees of the organization.

The marketing strategy of the company is highly focused on conducting and developing aggressive tactics that allows consumers to be intrigued with the services that the company provides. The company also relies strongly on how it can manage the reviews that it receives online across various websites in the country so that it is able to benefit from these positive testimonials. Hence, the marketing strategy of the company is highly focused on providing interactive experience to consumers using social media strategies as well as through management of digital reviews that the company receives. Along with this, it is also essential to note as to how the company provides strong training to its employees in terms of brokerage skills and how they can close larger sales volume for the company based on the networks that they are able to build.

The current most integral challenge faced by the company is generating leads and closing sales effectively, given that the liquidity of consumers has been affected by the COVID-19 situation. In addition to this, the company also relies on providing strong discounts to consumers as an integral part of the business model, which has a strong impact on the overall volume of revenues or profits that the company generates.

The second challenge the company strongly faces relates to being able to provide employees of the company with fixed income, as there is a strong variation in the sales that the company has generated during the current period due to the strong level of uncertainty.

Coronavirus impact on real estate Project delivery Owing to the Coronavirus pandemic and total lockdown, developers may fail to deliver their housing project on time.

Developers may increasingly adopt ‘digital’ launches’, in place of physical launches of their projects.

The lockdown to contain the COVID-19 outbreak will hinder the execution of infrastructure projects Daily wages earners who are dependent on the construction sector for their livelihoods, could be rendered jobless.

Amid severe economic concern, people may not want to put their money in real estate, unitil there is calrity abput revival.

Project launches Infrastructure Construction labour Home buyers Figure 56: Top challenges faced by the real estate industry due to COVID-19 Strategies to Deal with the Challenges The company was able to strongly navigate through the challenge of reduced sales through being able to indulge in proactive marketing strategies and by exposing the audience in the UAE market to the unique property management and consultancy services that it provides to consumers. For instance, the company has indulged in a higher level of social media marketing, which has gained immense popularity in the country currently, and is slowly evolving as an important method of interaction with clients. Hence, the first change that the company was able to make to deal with the challenges of the real estate market is providing the audience with information points which strongly motivated them to invest in the market and take advantage of various opportunities such as low prices in the current market because of COVID-19 dynamics.

Further, to deal with the challenge of strong costs that the company faced providing income to the employees of the organization, it ensured that it integrated a higher level of freelancing and part-time employees, which allowed the company to reduce the costs incurred and the overall burden of catering to other compensation packages for employees. In addition to this, the company was also able to develop a framework to allow for employees to work remotely, which helped in reducing the costs of operation for the company and for being able to develop a higher level of connectivity and convenience for consumers. Therefore, the second most integral change that the company was able to make relates to how it altered the cost structure to allow for more profits and sales commissions that it makes from property deals and clients for property consultancy.

Successful and Failed Practices The successful practice of the company is mainly because of how it has been able to combine consultancy services with selling properties. This means that it can provide consumers and investors with strong advice on how they should deploy their funds within the real estate market as well as be able to provide them with the latest deals in the market. Through this, consumers are often able to rely higher upon the organization, trust them, and develop a lifelong relationship with the company. In addition to this, based on the evaluation of the company, it can also be seen as to how the company has benefited from this practice and has provided considerable benefits to clients through its elaborate strategy of differentiation.

In terms of failed practices of the organization, it can be seen as to how it has restricted the team to only a limited number of real estate agents who have high levels of experience and have often eliminated the scope for hiring new graduates in the market who want to start a career in the real estate industry. Not only has this reduced the scope for creativity, fresh ideas, and the ability of the company to connect to younger audiences, but has also increased the workload that the existing agents of the company face. Further, these agents of the company who have been able to gain strong exposure to the markets are unable to provide training to other individuals, which further reduces the potential of the company to grow in the market.

Current Situation of the Company Currently, the company has been able to deal with the challenges that it initially faced due to COVID-19 and have been able to develop a higher level of sales as the market recovers post the uncertainty that was seen in

• In addition to this, the company has also been

able to successfully integrate technological framework into its organizational processes that has allowed it to provide a higher range of services and property options that it can make available to the consumers.

In addition to these aspects, the current situation of the company also relates to how it can provide the audience with the market in terms of access to VIP properties and off plan properties that are new to the region and often provide value to the consumers through unique product access.

The first recommendation to the company is to ensure that it can incorporate a broader target market through hiring employees that are from different age groups and diversities that would allow it to connect with different audience groups and hence, would help in increasing business. Through hiring individuals that do not necessarily have real estate skills but are enthusiastic in developing a career within the market, the company would be able to develop a considerable level of reputation in the market as well as enhance its position within the industry. The second recommendation for the company is to ensure that it can integrate a framework for technological interaction in the market such as using video conferencing sessions or using chatbots or virtual assistants that would provide consumers with a strong point of contact and be supported with first interaction with the company. In addition to this, through the implementation of such frameworks, it would be easier for the company to understand the kind of deals and services by the brand the consumers are interested in from a research perspective.

Hiring Diverse Employees Integrate Technological Aspects To reach a wider audience range and target different consumers with different preferences Introduce factors such as digital marketing, virtual assistance, 360 degree home tours Figure 57: Top recommendations for Realty Force Real Estate

Based on the analysis that was conducted, various integral elements have been identified to understand the strategy of the organization and the success that it has been able to generate over the years. The most important lessons learned from the case study are as

follows

¡ Organizations need to ensure that they can incorporate a higher level of inclusive practices in the company, which would allow them to hire individuals across different age groups, qualifications, and interaction skills that would increase their audience base.

¡ Providing consumers with consultancy services and support in understanding the dynamics of the market has a strong impact on being able to close the sales more efficiently and building long-lasting relationships with consumers.

¡ The use of social media marketing and online review management has become crucial in recent years as companies aim to create a more refined brand reputation on online platforms, which requires them to to interact well with the audience.

The focus of the report was to evaluate and highlight how Realty Force Real Estate as an organization has been able to overcome various challenges and has developed a strong position in the real estate market. Based on the various aspects such as the strategies of the company, offerings that it provides, and the successful and failed practices, the case study offers a strong example of how proactive marketing and changes to the cost structure of the company can have a considerable impact on improving the profits and sales levels for the business. In addition to this, the dynamics of the case offer various instances of how strong improvements can be made to the company using increased modifications to the human resource structure of the company, which would allow the brand to have a higher level of diversity and growth. Lastly, it deals with the challenges of the real estate market, hence requiring brands to indulge in careful analysis and research of various stakeholders in the market such as consumers, suppliers, human resources as well as the management of the company.