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Brightfox Client is CNBC Arabian Property Award Winner Again

Brightfox would like to congratulate all winners of the 2009 CNBC Arabian Property Awards Once again, the CNBC Property Awards have highlighted the depth of talent in the Arabian property sector. Each year the awards go from strength to strength and the level of competition has been raised yet again in 2009. Our congratulations go out to all the category winners from this years awards and a special congratulations to our triple award winning client, The Oryx Corporation, who have once again led the way in terms of marketing and website presence.

Brightfox, one of the worlds leading property software companies, is proud to have achieved the “Best Real Estate Agency Website Arabia” award for Oryx for the second year in succession and would revel in the opportunity to work with and secure similar brand recognition for your business.

To find out more about our award winning product portfolio of property software systems, websites and client/broker portals, or to avail of our consultancy services in real estate e-sales & e-marketing, CRM and business process automation, please contact your nearest Brightfox representative today for a free in house appointment.

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Bing taking market share from Google

A recent article in The Australian Newspaper commented on the sucess of Bing and Yahoo in taking market share from Google. Now in Australia that isn’t going to be hard initially, as Google has around 90% of all search engine traffic. Making a significant dint will be much harder however.

You can see the full article here.

There is no doubt Bing is a good search engine – far far better than Live and a real potential threat to Google. In a recent interview by Tech Crunch with Steve Ballmer, Ballmer commented that they have over 5000 people working on search. A pretty extraordinary number but it shows how serious Microsoft is about competing with Google.

You can see the full interview with Ballmer here.

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A suit the provides protection to Swine Flu! Just what every busy real estate agent needs.

Not the usual content that I blog about, but I thought this was great (in a funny way). A Japanese company has produced a suit that supposedly protects against the HIN1 (swine flu).

A lot of agents might think that they need some form of protection from difficult customers, well now they have it! In the form of a swine flu resistant suit! Well at least protection from the customers sick children.

All they need to do now is build in an I-Phone with a microphone and ear piece on the collar and maybe your own QR Code on the sleeve so anyone can quickly scan and get your details – then you have the complete mobile package!

Visit here for the full story

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Cityscape Dubai 2009

Cityscape Dubai 2009 launched today and I was in attendance. Numbers are vastly down on last year – I would guess about 75% down. Having said that it was still busy, which says a lot about how crazily busy it used to be!

This is the first time in 4 years that we have not had a booth at Cityscape Dubai, primarily because we choose the exhibit at Cityscape Abu Dhabi earlier in the year.

It will no doubt be a more subdued year in terms of visitor numbers and deals done, but I am sure it will come back stronger next year, and we will be there again.

Even though we are not exhibiting at Cityscape this year we are running some great Cityscape specials, so if you are looking to purchase a new software solution for your business, I encourage you to contact us asap.

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Launch of R.E.Mobile making it easier for property buyers to find property online

 ACCESS TO PROPERTY INFORMATION JUST GOT MOBILE!

Brightfox is proud to announce the launch of R.E.Mobile, a world first product that takes an existing website and optimises it for viewing over any smart phone in the world.

Over 140 Million ‘smart phones’ were sold in 2008 and with 87.1% of all property buyers researching property online, the smart phone will become more and more prevalent in today’s market.

Instant access to property information is becoming extremely important, but the ability to view this information in an easy to view format has been somewhat difficult.

Enter R.E.Mobile.

R.E.Mobile, or Real Estate Mobile, is designed to enable any real estate agency or developer to instantly establish contact with consumers and provide them with essential property information via a smart phone.

An R.E.Mobile site takes a companies existing website content and transforms it into an easy to read format ready for any multimedia phone allowing buyers to research whilst on the run.

R.E.Mobile can display listings, projects, rentals, staff profiles, latest news and more, all updated instantly from the companies own website (which also eliminates the need for manual updating).

“RE Mobile allows buyer’s to research property information whilst on location via their smart phone. It can provide them with all the information they need instantly, in an easy to read format to make a calculated decision”, said Brightfox Managing Director, Cameron Black.

“With people now viewing less homes per purchase thanks to the Internet, and with RE Mobile, buying property has now become a lot easier”.

An R.E.Mobile website is a fully customizable and can be setup and running in under 3 weeks and for as little as $25 per week*.

For more information on R.E.Mobile and its innovative technology, contact Brightfox.

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Brightfox Launch New Mobile Website Service

Brightfox today announce the launch of a new service called R.E.Mobile to build websites compatable with and optimised for viewing over mobile phones. The new R.E.Mobile service makes it very easy and cost effective for any property firm to quickly create a full mobile compatable website within weeks. Brightfox will take the existing content, including dynamic listing data for real estate offices, and build a searchable mobile friendly site that will enable the millions of mobile phone users to visit and search for properties or projects.

For more information on this product, and an example of a R.E.Mobile website, go to http://www.brightfox.com.au/au/remobile.asp

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Burj Dubai the worlds tallest tower to open on December 2

The Burj Dubai will officially open to the public on December 2, to coincide with UAE National Day, Arabian Business can reveal.

The opening date of the world’s tallest building has been a closely guarded secret for years – however, a senior architect working on the project has confirmed that December 2 has been set aside for the opening.

The Armani Hotel, part of the building, will take its first guests on the same day.

Ceremonies to mark the launch are also being planned for December 2. It is not yet clear whether other parts of the tower will be fully accessible.

“This will be a huge achievement and a big celebration for the UAE and for Emaar, particularly as it’s UAE National Day. It will be the first time the public can enter the building,” said the architect.

Emaar has always maintained it will not comment on the specific opening date and has also been tight-lipped over the final height of the Burj Dubai, which is thought to have topped out earlier this year at 818 metres.

Source: arabianbusiness.com

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Australia cracks down on real estate agent activity

The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is launching a crackdown on real estate agents. It is proposing changes to the Trade Practices Act the will enable it to prosecute agents to break the law.

“It is proposing fines of more than $1 million for companies and up to $220,000 for individual agents that underquote, use dummy bidders at auctions and airbrush photos of properties.”

You can see the full article on Yahoo 7 here – http://au.biz.yahoo.com/090719/31/27hmd.html

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Dubai Property Sector continues to consolidate

Further mergers and consolidations are bringing clarity to the Dubai property sector as developers look to restructure debts and the government reorganizes developers under it’s umbrella.

At it’s high RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, recorded 447 approved developers, however this number is now being scaled back as it developers look to best manage assets and resources and deliver on projects, such as middle income housing which have greater momentum amidst the current economic climate.

Emaar, the largest developer in the Middle East, and now close to completion of the worlds tallest tower, Burj Dubai, stated last week that it is in talks to acquire the property interests of Dubai Holdings. This would bring three large entities – Sama Dubai, Tatweer and Dubai Properties – under the Emaar brand, creating the largest property developer in the MENA region.

“Consolidating these three companies with Emaar is a natural progression in the evolution of the Dubai real estate landscape, providing benefits to all stakeholders,” said Mohammed al Gergawi, the chairman of Dubai Holding.

Dubai World, also last week said that it was in the process of consolidating Leisurecorp, Dubai Maritime City and Dubai Multi Commodities Centre under the Nakheel brand.

“The move aims at consolidating activities of the same nature to better accommodate current market conditions and optimise resources and expertise,” a Dubai World spokeswoman said.

Also still on the cards, is the continued discussion of a merger between Deyaar Development and Union Properties.

“Consolidation is gathering momentum, driven by structural, market and regulatory factors,” said Dirk Buchta, the Middle East managing director of the management consultancy firm AT Kearney, in a report this month. The firm is said to be advising Deyaar and Union Properties on merger options.

From it’s high of 447 registered property developers, it will certainly be interesting to see where we end up. However, one thing is for certain, these mergers are for the good of the Dubai property sector in the short, medium and long term and will help deliver stability for both these companies and their clients and investors.

So, the only question is, who’s next?