Dubai, UAE — Statista estimates the GCC real estate market to be US$4.6 trillion in 2024. The luxury market segment has experienced significant growth, driven by an increase in the number of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). Accommodating them requires new thinking.
Michael Belton, CEO of MERED, a prominent luxury real estate developer, discussed with TRENDS how the sector is shaping up in the GCC.
How is GCC real estate developing from a green, lifestyle and smart building perspective?
We have a generation keen on all aspects of sustainability, health and wellness but also on lifestyle-centric living quarters. It’s not just about having a gym or yoga on the premises. You need things like reverse osmosis water systems in your building because residents complain about losing their hair due to water quality. They want good air quality and recyclable water systems in landscaping. Also, everyone wants digital integration. In the GCC, there’s also a real focus on community. Dubai is the United Nations of the world, wherein one residential building might have neighbors from China, India, Pakistan, America, the U.K., Russia, and Ukraine.
How do you secure plots for luxury development to address growing urban and business clusters?
People want to have scenic views. They want to be near parks. In one of our buildings, we built what’s called a Sky Park on the 15th floor, a complete green space that residents and guests can enjoy.
If you’re building for a family, you need to have schools but also public transportation, even for luxury projects, as traffic worsens. We don’t just want to buy the most expensive piece of land like on the Palm, because if you do that, you may not make money.
What technologies do you use in and for your projects?
The mainframe system we have has to be adaptable. We try to future-proof our building, technologically speaking, to allow people to evolve and go forward. We try to tie into mass transportation technologies like traffic lights and driverless cars. We certainly use construction management software to have a defect-free building. Technology, for us, is everything from the high energy efficiency systems that we install, to reverse osmosis, future connectivity, and more.
As a developer, how do you accommodate the future of work?
We always incorporate hybrid spaces into our buildings that can be used as a work-from-home space. It could be a conference room on our amenity floor to basically use as a co-working facility. It allows people to avoid having to sit in their apartment with a dog running around behind them. It’s a quiet space to do their work. And then, again, it’s all about the connectivity and having smart home features allowing you to plug in and plug out. And then location is key. If you build 15 miles away from someone’s office, it’s hard to get there. We try to reduce the time people are in their cars, by allowing them to walk, bicycle, or take a scooter to the office. Amenities in your buildings like the gym give immediate access, saving time and carbon footprints.
How, as a developer, do you look at the current and future digital citizen?
Well, having reverse osmosis systems means that someone does not need to carry a plastic bottle, and you don’t have somebody delivering it to your apartment. This allows future digital citizens to feel like they’re making an impact on the climate and the environment. Taking it a step forward, having a smart building system allows people to turn the air conditioning down or up remotely.
An idea we have for future projects is to create a special lift just for food delivery and the reason for that is that we always see delivery guys in our elevators, consuming more electricity, as opposed to having a small, lift, that takes it from the entrance up to the living space. The digital citizen cares about efficiency from waste management, to proper disposal and recycling, all to cut down the carbon footprint.
How is AI used in urban development?
As a developer, we use ChatGPT to generate leads and sell. In the past, you had to have a big sales force and a call center, not to mention spend money on digital advertising, outdoor advertising, TVs, radios, et cetera. Now with AI, we can reduce the need for 10 people to just one who prepares the information. Sales data is sent out in 18 different languages, to all time zones during the day. A chatbot is there to offer responses to inquiries. Now, we can generate leads 24/7, which I think is amazing with a cost per lead today at around 25 cents compared to hundreds of dollars before.
