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(Clockwise from top) Khadija Meziane El Otmani; Alessia Sheglova, MD, Dacha Real Estate; Helen Tatham, Managing Partner, Prime Places Real Estate; Louise Heatley; Dounia Fadi, Founder and CEO, MD Properties; Ariadna Casanovas, partner and marketing manager at Luxhabitat, is a leading real estate executive.Provided by Prestige Magazine, Propertyfinder Group
Sunshine aside, the reason most of us live in the UAE is that there is no better place in the world to do business. The UAE’s pro-business, pro-entrepreneur policies create a level playing field.
We recently brought together 7 women who hold leadership positions in some of Dubai’s best real estate companies and property management companies. They come together to talk about how they came to the UAE, how they broke the mold and started their own businesses, and how to succeed in a country where women don’t just drive but are at the helm of more fields. In more ways than one.
These women have a lot in common: After living in Dubai, they all realized that running their own companies was not only possible but profitable; each experienced the 2008 economic slowdown and said they changed as a result. stronger; both attribute much of their success to the UAE’s business environment.
But since then, their paths have diverged, as there is no single story to tell about how women make it in a male-dominated world.
It is worth noting the difference in the number of men in Dubai. According to the Dubai Statistics Center, as of the end of 2016, 70% of foreign workers in the emirate were men. However, government efforts and female leadership in the private sector are creating a new face of women in the Middle East. As of November last year, 9 of the 29 government ministers in the UAE were women, and 23-year-old Shamma bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui was the youngest government minister in the world.
Meanwhile, the UAE is just one step away from joining the top 20 countries in terms of ease of doing business, according to Knight Frank’s latest rankings. This year it jumped five spots to No. 21.
Louise Heatley, Managing Director of Exclusive Links Real Estate, arrived in the UAE in 1996 as an Emirates Airline cabin crew member. Within four years, she had risen to the position of top crew chief, but wasn’t sure what to do next. Real estate proved to be her opportunity, and in 2005 she went into business with a local Emirati woman who sponsored her fledgling property management company. She now manages 40 employees. According to her, the UAE is always on a steep learning curve but will roll with the changes and learn from its mistakes.
Hind Jouini, managing director of Real Choice Real Estate, has seen firsthand that the regulatory wheels are turning in the right direction. “Everything has been resolved,” she said, citing the efforts of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority and the Dubai Land Department. “Right now we’re working mostly with end users and operations are going smoothly. It’s time to grow.”
This optimism is hard-earned. Jouini came to Dubai from Tunisia in 2001 as an employee at a stamped concrete company. She felt overworked and underpaid, so after just a year in the UAE, she started her own business. Fifteen years, a slowdown and millions of trades later, she oversees a healthy brokerage with hundreds of listings and a team of 30 people.
“This is a promising market,” Juini said. “A woman will succeed from the effort she puts into her work and from the confidence she has in herself. If she does both, she will succeed.”
Khadija Meziane El Otmani, co-founder and partner of Driven Holiday Homes, eloquently proves this theory. For 4 years, she established a business partnership with Abdullah Al Ajaji through sweat equity in the company. The businesses she oversees are an integral part of Driven Properties’ operations.
For El Otmani, gender plays the biggest role. She said when she started Driven Holiday Homes in 2014, she initially hired only women because she found it difficult to find men willing to be managed by women.
“I think, especially in real estate, you have to have a strong personality and you have to be a liar,” she said. “My background is that of an Arab woman, a Muslim woman. I still have that prejudice.”
At first, she identified most with these qualities in the women she interviewed. Over time, her views changed and the company now has gender parity.
That doesn’t mean she’s no longer leading women-first surgeries. Recently, she wanted to allocate office space for children and their caregivers, giving them a place to play and spend time during the workday. She also hopes the space will serve as a nursery and lactation room for new mothers on staff.
But her company grew so quickly that the space she had was quickly being used as conference space. Still, it remains her top priority.
Going forward, much will still depend on how well regulations are enforced to make it more attractive for businesses, including women-led businesses, in the UAE.
Heatley puts it most succinctly: “I’ve never met anyone who regretted moving here.”
Hajje is Chief Commercial Officer of Propertyfinder Group; Warner is Editor of Propertyfinder Group. The views expressed are their own and do not reflect the policy of the newspaper.
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