Since 2022, Realiste AI has changed the way real estate deals are done around the world. Arunima Mishra talks to Alex Galstev about the brand’s success, its implications for the travel industry, and future expansion.
By Team DRW®
n 2022, Realiste AI, a Dubai-based artificial intelligence property exchange, made a splash in the tech sector with $1 million in monthly revenue. Having operations in Riyad, London, New York, and Moscow, the platform has disrupted the real estate market through its transparent property search and exchange capabilities.
Advisors backing the company in the MENA region include UAE heavyweights like Ahmed Alenazi, CEO at STC pay; HE Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Vice-chairwoman at EMAAR; and Tarek Hajjiri, CEO of DIFC, to name a few.
In this exclusive with DRW®, Realiste AI Founder and CEO, Alex Galtsev explains why the AI-based property exchange platform is the most preferred option for real estate investors and buyers, and its potential for travel and tourism.
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AM: What’s the story behind Realiste AI’s success?
AG: The choice of the product and target audience drive our success. We developed an AI-powered platform that streamlines all the processes associated with investing in real estate: searching, evaluating, buying, and managing properties. It can automatically choose a property depending on investors’ needs, evaluate it, calculate the appreciation rate for one/two/three years, and return on investment (ROI) or rental yield.
Since November 2022, using our platform, customers can also book and buy off-plan apartments in Dubai online directly from developers within seconds. Furthermore, we launched a new app recently that serves as an online investment portfolio where investors can manage their assets. This app evaluates assets daily. It also monitors the market 24/7 and suggests properties that will be wise to buy right now or mark the assets that would be best to get rid of due to market changes.
Realiste operates in 20 cities worldwide including Dubai, London, and New York. By the end of 2023, we plan to add 30 cities more…
This tool can address all investors’ needs and elevate all challenges associated with property investing (lack of transparency, time-consuming process of researching the market for suitable apartments and closing the deals), and can attract more buyers. That, in turn, accelerates the growth of the real estate market, and related industries benefit too. For instance, hospitality and travel can gain from the inflow of people wanting to invest and be a part of developing cities like Dubai.
Building exterior. Photo: Realiste AI.
AM: How does your platform work in related industries – travel and tourism, for example?
AG: Many of our investors purchase properties through Realiste to rent them out. And more options for travelers will be available across the market when more tourists will come.
However, we have yet to work with related industries, so it is difficult to come up with suitable examples. But we are witnessing a growing number of investors purchasing property in Dubai for renting purposes. And for them, our AI can display the best options and calculate the potential ROI.
Also, we see a link between these industries and real estate and how they impact each other. For instance, we saw a 50 percent increase in rental prices in Dubai over the three months prior to FIFA in Qatar.
“Realiste operates in 20 cities worldwide, including Dubai, London, and New York. By the end of 2023, we plan to add 30 cities more worldwide.”
Photo: Realiste AI.
AM: How user-friendly or seamless is the buying experience in the AI-enabled home-buying space? Give us an example.
AG:On our website: magic.realiste.io you will see a map where you can choose a city and a layer of information you are interested in. For instance, in Dubai, you can see the “price analysis” layer where our AI highlights the most overpriced and under-estimated areas with average prices and forecasts for price growth, etc. Another layer is “properties on the market” where you can see all the estate available for investing in Dubai. There you can book an apartment online within several seconds.
AM: How would you differentiate Realiste AI from other AI-related firms on the market?
AG: Our AI selects properties depending on the investors’ needs whether they want to buy, resell or rent out. Also, as our platform focuses on property investors, it provides them with valuable data concerning different properties.
For instance, apart from posting photos and information about the size of a particular apartment, we suggest investing strategies and give customers data about price appreciation rate, and ROI, based on AI’s calculations. We are the first to do that in the MENA region and that is our crucial competitive advantage.
AM: What about the competition?
AG: We are the leading company that uses AI to address all the investors’ needs, from searching for a property to managing it in one place in the MENA. Here we don’t have competition, but we see many projects that try to follow our success.
The closest company that uses a similar business model is USA-based prop-tech OpenDoor Labs. This company developed a platform that allows customers to proceed with property deals online too. But they focus on sellers, while we are targeting specific buyers – real estate investors.
Photo: Realiste AI
AM: Any plans for expansion? Which market do you find your TG coming from, and where would you like to take Realiste from here?
AG: Realiste operates in 20 cities worldwide, including Dubai, London, and New York. By the end of 2023, we plan to add 30 cities more worldwide.
We created a business model that allows us to expand our operations quickly and effectively. We launch every new city with a strategic partner from a particular location who shares our values and deep knowledge of the local market and business field. They take on the operations and invest in the development of the local company. For our part, we provide partners with our tech.
We have already launched a joint company with a local partner in Saudi Arabia. Soon we will be able to tell you more about this deal.
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