The Dubai property watchdog has for the first time ranked the top brokers working in the emirate in a bid to boost transparency and prevent fraud.
It means that buyers and sellers of property can check that property brokers are registered, as well as how many deals they have closed.
The Dubai Land Department (DLD) yesterday revealed details of a new app that provides details of all registered property brokers working in the emirate.
Dubai Brokers can be downloaded both through Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.
It is aimed at providing greater transparency and preventing potential fraud.
The DLD’s director-general, Sultan bin Mejren, said that brokers were an important link between property buyers and developers. The new app not only provides confirmation of their status, but also ranks the top 100 brokers, although this is based on the number of transactions rather than user ratings.
There are currently 1,050 brokerage firms registered with Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) and 2,154 individuals.
The top-ranked broker was Heather Tait of Espace Real Estate, who has completed 242 deals since she was initially registered as a broker with the Dubai Land Department in September 2009.
“The department has made unremitting efforts over the past few years to provide a lot of smart services that aims to alleviate the burden on dealers to carry out a broad spectrum of transactions,” Mr bin Mejren said.
A spokesperson for the department added that the aim of the app was to help people easily identify legitimate brokers, as well as check if their licence to practice was up to date.
Since last year, any broker seeking to renew his or her licence has had to pass a test. It also cancels licences of any agents who go more than six months over the renewal date.
In the past, people posing as brokers have taken cheques from clients who thought they were paying to buy or rent a property, only to later find that they were victims of a scam. In August 2012, the chief executive of the agency Shamyana Entertainment Services fled the country with about Dh6 million in cheques that were paid to him by tenants to cover rents but these were not passed on to property owners.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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