Demand from developers help software firms thrive

Even though a decline in demand has hit software companies that catered to real estate, they have been saved by emerging needs of property developers to sell off their inventory.

Firms that make software for the real estate sector reported a 30 per cent drop in demand for project and site management software, but saw an equal rise in demand for customer resource management (CRM) software.

"We have seen a heavy fall in demand for project management software. But a 25 to 30 per cent rise in CRMs has helped us," said Ali Haddad, a senior account manager with Master Key, a real estate software developer.

Dubai , a hub of real estate development in the Middle East, alone has more than 100 small software companies focusing on real estate.

Most of these firms are branches of software majors based abroad. They have continued to stay put in Dubai even in the troubled times because every major real estate developer has large inventories that needs to be disposed of.

"Dubai is an attractive destination for us. Competition among [real estate] companies to hold on to their customers is forcing them to use more efficient software to manage their properties. And that's where we are coming into the picture," said Bobby Tan, a business development manager at Argus, a company headquartered in Houston, Texas.

An official from a New York-based software company said he has been asked to shift to Dubai considering the demand for real estate software – in any form – had completely ebbed in the US, but Dubai and the region still provided opportunities.

Argus reported an annual turnover of $100 million (Dh367m) last year, an amount Tan says is comparable to the company's performance in years before the recession.

Besides the software sector, another service aspect related to real estate – the maintenance companies – is also reporting brisk demand.

"In these troubled times, we have managed to retain our client base. And then, we have gone on to attract other major customers. Business is coming from the fact that companies want their properties to be maintained well so that they could be sold to prospective buyers. And competition is rising in this regard," said Imad El Haddad, Operations Manager at MMG Emirates Management.

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