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HOW DIRECT ENGAGEMENT WITH BUYERS CAN TRANSFORM REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
Have you ever wondered why real estate commissions never seem to change? In the UAE, agent commissions are typically 2 percent of a property’s price and up to 5 percent of rental value. In many other countries, it’s the same story — commissions are generally fixed, without regard to the quality of the property, its size and value, or even the quality of service.
Is this a fair deal? Opinions may differ, but over the years many experts have often cited this practice as one of the enduring inefficiencies and limitations of the developer–agent–buyer chain. Traditionally, in this model, buyers make decisions largely based on what is presented to them by intermediaries, while developers rely on the same agents to gather market feedback. One party, the intermediary, acts as gatekeepers of the flow of information, and consequently holds more insights than both developers and buyers.
Analysts say this set-up has led to information frictions in the market, a term they use to describe information that is imperfect, costly, or asymmetric. It’s a system prone to distortions, delays, and inefficiencies that ultimately result in mispricing, misaligned offerings, slower feedback, and missed market insights.
But for years things have remained largely unchanged. Amid one of the real estate market’s most dynamic phases, we would be tempted to think otherwise — that the conditions for change have never been stronger. In Dubai, the property market reached a value of AED 761 billion in 2024, shattering records according to the Dubai Land Department. The entire city is buzzing with new projects, including a much-awaited third metro train line. But as they say, developers build quickly yet adapt slowly.
So while we’re seeing skylines transform at breathtaking speed, many business practices, e.g. how properties are marketed, sold, and priced, have largely remained the same. Pricing structures and commission models have been left untouched. Countless studies have exhaustively discussed why this is so, e.g. the real estate and construction industries being historically change-averse. The usual excuses: they’re asset-heavy, heavily regulated, and have a strong reliance on long-standing relationships and legacy processes.
But change is becoming a competitive necessity. While maintaining the status quo preserves certain best practices, the conventional developer–agent–buyer set-up has also entrenched inefficiencies that no longer serve today’s developers or buyers. Breaking the status quo means rethinking how knowledge moves through the property value chain. But who will take the first step?
Direct-to-owner model
Disintermediation, the process of removing middlemen between developers and buyers, is an alternative approach that overcomes many of these inefficiencies. From the outset, this model is seen to greatly benefit real estate consumers as it completely removes the need for agent commissions. But developers and many individual home sellers also stand to gain from engaging directly with homebuyers as it gives them complete control over the sales process and market data – two critical factors for maintaining a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.
This is not a totally new concept. Disintermediation was coined in the 1960s when consumers started to invest directly in securities such as stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and mutual funds, instead of depositing their money in banks. Technology was key to unlocking this shift, not just in finance but in other industries such as real estate.
In the age of the internet and artificial intelligence, disintermediation has taken on a far more practical and transformative role, particularly in real estate. The modern buyer’s journey increasingly begins, and many times ends, online, with AI influencing every stage. In fact, the UAE has now achieved 100% internet penetration, according to a report by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), effectively making online platforms a default starting point for most property seekers.
Meanwhile, there has been a big shift in the homebuyer profile towards a younger, more tech-savvy generation. The average age of homebuyers has significantly dropped from 53-54 in 2017 to 42-44 in 2025. Moreover, 36-45-year-olds now account for up to 40% of off-plan sales and 44% for ready and re-sale transactions. An even younger cohort, the 21-25 age group, is becoming increasingly active in the property market, buying 38.6% and 33.3% more off-plan and ready property, respectively, over the previous year.
This shows a clear shift in who is buying as well as in the potential of data-driven and algorithm-assisted decision-making as younger real estate consumers increasingly turn to online platforms to buy and gather insights. Yet, in the traditional developer–agent–buyer chain, that data, enriched with AI insights on buyer behavior and preferences, is filtered through layers of intermediation before reaching the developer.
Giving back control to those who create value
Direct-to-owner platforms are now changing that dynamic entirely. Instead of relying on agents to interpret the market, developers and sellers can engage directly with their customers, gaining complete visibility and control over their data and customer interactions. They see first-hand how buyers respond to pricing, visuals, and messaging, and can adjust their strategies accordingly in real time. In our experience at Gllit, a direct-to-owner property listing platform, the efficiencies gained from direct customer engagement are significant — giving developers and sellers critical customer insights that allow them to respond faster to trends and design more inclusive, market-aligned projects and strategies.
Disintermediation is ultimately about restoring balance in the flow of information and of the real estate transaction process. Developers gain agility and data ownership, while buyers benefit from transparency and fairer pricing. In the age of the internet and AI, platforms that allow direct engagement with buyers offer a practical and more efficient alternative to the conventional model that puts control, data, and insight back into the hands of those who create real value.
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WHY MOST AESTHETIC CLINIC OWNERS NEVER BUILD A TRUE BUSINESS

By Nurse SarahLouise, CEO & Founder of The Business Injection
People often ask me what the biggest lesson has been over fifteen years in this industry. They expect me to talk about marketing, or pricing, or scaling tactics and it isn’t any of those things.The biggest lesson I have learned is that you never build a business for the good days, in fact you build it for the days when life falls apart.
I started my own clinic from a back garden room, with a ten thousand pound personal loan, no investors, and no business background whatsoever. I was a single mother in the middle of a divorce at the time. I am telling you this because there have been moments in my own life where I could barely think straight, yet the business still had to serve patients, still had to support a team, and still had to generate revenue. Those moments taught me something that has shaped everything I have built since. The businesses that survive are not built by the most talented practitioners in the room, instead they are built by people who create something that does not depend on them being at one hundred percent every single day. That is the gap I see across this entire industry, and it is the real reason most aesthetic clinic owners never build a true business. They build a job instead, and they call it a business because it has a logo and a lease.
Clinical training teaches you to diagnose, treat, and deliver outstanding results. It teaches you nothing about cash flow, retention, team structure, or pricing that reflects actual value. I often describe this as an eighty-twenty problem. Clinical skill is roughly twenty percent of what a practitioner actually needs to succeed. The other eighty percent, the part nobody teaches in any training academy, is the operational backbone that determines whether a brilliant clinician ends up with a thriving brand or an exhausting job they built for themselves and cannot step away from. I see the same pattern constantly when practitioners attempt to scale, and it almost always comes down to three specific mistakes.
The first is confusing a full diary with a profitable business. I have sat across from clinic owners who are booked solid for months, exhausted, and barely breaking even, because nobody has ever taught them to look past revenue to what is actually left once costs, time, and their own labour are properly accounted for. Being fully booked feels like success. It is frequently the opposite, dressed up convincingly.
The second is scaling the treatment menu without ever scaling the experience. Practitioners add more services, more machines, more brands to their price list, believing variety is what grows a business. What actually grows a business is the experience a patient has from the moment they walk in to the moment they leave, and the relationship that experience builds. I have watched clinics with fewer treatments but a genuinely memorable patient journey consistently outperform clinics offering everything under the sun with no real identity behind any of it. Patients are no longer simply choosing a treatment. They are choosing the person and the brand behind it, and a clinic selling pure product with no experience attached to it is increasingly vulnerable to a competitor who understands that distinction.
The third, and the most damaging, is hiring and growing before any system exists for the practitioner to hire and grow into. I have seen owners bring on associates or expand into a second room with nothing documented, no consultation framework, no retention process, no consistent way of training a new team member, because everything that worked previously existed only in the owner’s head. The result is a business that cannot maintain its standards the moment the owner is not personally present, which means it has not actually scaled at all. It has simply multiplied the owner’s exhaustion.
The turning point, in my own business and in every clinic owner I have mentored since, comes down to one shift. It happens the moment an owner stops asking how to get busier and starts asking what would happen to this business if I disappeared for a month. That single question exposes everything a clinic has never built. No retention system. No documented process. No team capable of holding the standard without supervision. It is an uncomfortable question, and it is exactly the right one.
I built The Business Injection because I learned every one of these lessons the expensive way, with no mentor and no roadmap, and I do not believe any clinician should have to. The frameworks I now teach exist specifically to close that eighty percent gap, because clinical excellence alone was never going to be enough to build something that lasts.
The clinics that genuinely thrive over the next five years will not be the ones with the most treatments or the busiest diaries. They will be the ones who understood early that a business and a job are not the same thing, and who built accordingly. Anyone can build revenue for a while. Far fewer people build something resilient enough to survive the days when life asks for everything else.
Home Feature
THE GUIDE THAT WILL MAKE EVERY FAMILY’S LIFE EASIER THIS SUMMER
From childcare and learning support to home cleaning, telehealth, and baby gear refreshes, Mumzworld’s new services category brings practical everyday support into one trusted platform for modern families. Expanding beyond the shopping basket, Mumzworld is bringing childcare, home support, health, learning and children’s lifestyle services into one trusted platform. Designed around the real needs of families, the new category offers practical services through the Mumzworld app, helping parents feel more supported through the moments that often pile up.
Summer can quickly become one of the busiest times of year for families, with routines shifting and parents managing childcare, home organisation, learning, health and everyday needs all at once. For modern parents, the challenge is not always finding more things to buy, but finding reliable support that saves time, eases pressure and fits into daily life, which is where Mumzworld’s new services category comes in.
Here is how parents can build their summer survival toolkit with Mumzworld’s latest services.

Keep childcare support within reach
Summer often means parents need more flexibility, especially when regular routines change. Through the Mumzworld app, families can now access trusted babysitting services, with caregivers carefully selected, trained, and equipped with essential childcare and CPR knowledge.
For parents, this is not just about convenience. It is about feeling confident in the support they are bringing into their homes and their children’s routines.
Help kids make the most of summer with fun education
Summer does not have to mean pressing pause on learning. It can be a time for children to stay curious, build confidence and enjoy learning in a more relaxed way at home. Through Mumzworld’s educational support with Educators at Home, parents can access KHDA-approved educators who support children’s learning at home, helping families keep children engaged while still allowing summer to feel enjoyable and balanced.
Refresh the baby gear before your next holiday
Car seats, strollers and everyday baby essentials often need deeper care, especially when families are constantly on the move. Mumzworld’s baby gear cleaning service is designed for items such as car seats and strollers, helping parents keep important family essentials refreshed and ready to use.
For parents, it is one less task to manage and one more way to feel organised during the holiday season

Bring the home back under control
When family routines become fuller, keeping the home running smoothly can feel like a task on its own. Mumzworld’s home cleaning services give parents practical support with everyday home needs, helping families manage routines more easily.
It is the kind of service that supports parents in the background, creating more room in the day for everything else that matters.
Give children’s spaces a simple update
A change in season can also be a good moment to refresh children’s spaces. Through Mumzworld, families can access wallpaper design and installation services, helping bring children’s rooms to life with less pressure on parents’ time.
Whether it is a small refresh or a more thoughtful update, the service supports parents who want to improve children’s spaces without having to manage every detail alone.
Plan celebrations without the extra stress
Summer is often filled with family moments, including birthdays and at-home celebrations. Mumzworld’s birthday party planning service helps parents create memorable celebrations at home with less stress.
From planning to execution, the service gives families support in making special occasions feel easier, more organised and more enjoyable.
Keep health and wellbeing support close to home
Family wellbeing is also part of the new offering. Through Mumzworld’s telehealth services, families can connect with doctors, mental health professionals, and nutrition specialists from the comfort of home.
For parents, this brings another layer of reassurance, offering access to support without adding more pressure to already busy routines.
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THE EVENT BRINGS TOGETHER SUMMER SHOPPING AND EXCLUSIVE OFFERS UNDER ONE ROOF

As the summer holiday season begins, Jashanmal Group is set to bring its highly anticipated Warehouse Sale: Summer Edition to Cityland Mall Dubai. Following the overwhelming response to its recent Warehouse Sales in the region, the legacy retailer aims to create a family-focused sale for all ages.
The five-day shopping extravaganza taking place from June 24th to 28th is thoughtfully designed to offer a vibrant mix of shopping experiences. Adding to the experience, the Warehouse Sale: Summer Edition will feature a curated selection of premium international brands such as Kenwood, Clarks, Kipling, De’Longhi, BALLY, Hoover, Delsey Paris, Russell Hobbs and many more.
Commenting on the initiative Mr. Anurag Verma, Chief Distribution Officer, Jashanmal Group said, “Given the overwhelming popularity and enthusiastic response to our warehouse sales this year, truly a favorite among shoppers, we are thrilled to bring the highly anticipated Warehouse Sale Summer Edition to Dubai. Summer is a time when families come together, planning their travels and preparing for the season ahead, and it is truly the perfect time to shop. At Jashanmal, we bring together everything you need, offering a complete destination for all your summer shopping needs across multiple lifestyle categories.”
As the retail shopping experience continues to evolve in line with the changing consumer lifestyles and expectations, Jashanmal Group remains at the forefront of delivering immersive, experience-led engagements whether through unique retail concepts, seasonal campaigns and enhanced shopping experiences.
Aligned with the UAE Year of the Family, The Warehouse Sale: Summer Edition underscores the Group’s commitment to community focused initiatives, while celebrating the importance of family at the heart of life in the UAE.
Mr. Verma further added, “We are proud to offer an experience that reflects community spirit, togetherness and joy of shared moments. Through our upcoming sale, we are bringing together trusted brands, exciting experiences and attractive offers in one destination, creating a shopping event that the whole family can enjoy.”
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