International real estate group Engel & Völkers said it has witnessed tremendous success in Dubai market within less than a year, thanks to its innovative Metropolitan Market Centre (MMC) concept and a strategic collaboration with leading developer Nakheel.

After less than a year in operation, the Dubai MMC provides a base for 200 real estate agents specialising in the brokerage of high-end real estate throughout Dubai, and has achieved 200 sales transactions by end of 2015.

The Dubai operation, which opened in May 2015, brings together the Germany-based broker’s global expertise, with the local knowledge and profile of one of the UAE’s landmark property developers.

“Our first months of operation have clearly demonstrated the value of the MMC concept,” remarked Cesar Latrilla, the chief executive of Engel & Völkers in Dubai.

"The Dubai market is unique, in that many of the most exclusive properties are in planned communities dispersed across the city. A brokerage that brings all of these enclaves together under one roof is proving ideally suited to the needs of buyers at the high end of the market," he stated.

With around 7,000 employees in 37 countries, Engel & Völkers’ success is built on a network of distinctive residential property shops.

Often operated under national and local franchise agreements, they share an unmistakeable design, along with high levels of personalised client service, localised to carefully selected neighbourhoods.

"The Metropolitan Market Center is a concept that works particularly well in world cities of special interest to wealthy individuals, whether for lifestyle reasons or as significant business centres,” said Latrilla.

“Rather than issuing franchises for individual property shops, we enter into a licensing agreement with a substantial commercial partner, to establish a single operational centre identifying and marketing elite properties across an entire metropolitan area,” he added.

Engel & Völkers opened its first MMC in Barcelona in 2013, and Dubai was the seventh just two years later. As with property shops, partnerships and licensing agreements in the local market drives the expansion.

"A property shop franchise links our systems and processes, and our international reach, with an independent entrepreneur’s detailed local knowledge. The Metropolitan Market Center model is built on the same formula, but in this case with a partner substantial enough to offer expertise across an entire city," stated Latrilla.

"In Dubai, we have clearly found the right partner in Nakheel, a company widely recognised for creating some of the city's most exclusive and iconic developments, and which shares our goal of achieving a high proportion of market share in the brokerage of premium real estate in the shortest time possible," he added.-TradeArabia News Service