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In 2019, Dubai introduced laws to overhaul the way property service charges were set in the emirate. As service charges continue to increase, property owners have struggled to make payments but rents continue to fall. In fact, service charges have increased by anywhere between 10 and 25 percent over the past four years even as rents fell by about a third during the same period, according to a report by UAE English local newspaper Gulf News last month.
“There was a strong need to change the imbalance between the increasing costs of running a building or a unit versus the declining rent. This was the major opportunity that we wanted to focus on,” said Sam Issa, the co-founder of Realpoint, one of the first RICS building inspection and survey companies in Dubai.
Having spent 20 years in the real estate sector, Issa felt the situation presented an opportunity beyond managing building operation and maintenance costs to monetise the purchasing power of all the stakeholders involved.
Sam Issa, Co-Founder and Managing Director, GAIN Online Community
In early 2021, he joined hands with a group of UAE investors to co-found prop-tech start-up GAIN Online, a “private concierge service app,” to bring stakeholders such as owners, investors, tenants, and vendors such as facility management companies on a “single unified platform where they can engage with each other.”
“The vision of Realpoint was to raise the quality of all of Dubai real estate buildings and communities to meet and exceed the standards of this modern, forward-thinking city. I co-founded GAIN Online Community to directly address the challenge of rising service charges, maintenance costs and mitigate their impact, including the inevitable drop in quality of buildings’ maintenance and upkeep,” he said in an email interview with Zawya.
Owners and tenants are invited to join the free-of-charge app by their building management company. Users are rewarded with cashback on every purchase, which could be used by property owners towards paying service charges while end-user tenants can use the same to manage living expenses including rent.
Issa elaborated: “GAIN unlocks the purchasing power of occupants of real estate across multiple buildings and communities to entice suppliers of different goods and services to provide discounts and cashback to join the loyalty programme. This cashback will then be funnelled back to the unit owner that made the purchase and will go towards his service charges. Effectively, buildings will start to make money while enjoying the value-add provided by GAIN to its private community. It is a win-win situation for all involved.”
Partnerships
GAIN currently has partnerships with 11 home and business service providers. These include ServeU Essentials for Maintenance, ISS Relocations for Moving and storage, Spectrum for cleaning, Realpoint for Property Inspection and Valuation, Arms & McGregor International Realty for Property Sales, Rentals and Management, Bluechip for IT support, Karters Interior Decoration for Property Remodeling, Unimar for Pest Control, Transfective for Translation, Kudos PRS for Auditing and Accounting and Shuraa for Business Setup and Business Centres.
He emphasised that the user receives these services at an already discounted rate. Vendors, on the other hand, benefit from more exposure, recognition and new business.
“GAIN helps these vendors and service to expand their horizon and acquire new customers and benefit from accessing the purchasing power of the occupants in these real estate communities.”
Currently, GAIN has a potential userbase of nearly 60,000 community members occupying around 28,500 offices, apartments, and villas.
“We already cover Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah and we aim to add around 66,000 new units to our portfolio by the end of the year,” disclosed Issa.
Commenting on regulatory oversight, he said: “Using the vendors of GAIN is optional and not mandatory. Also, the services by these suppliers are not provided to the common areas of the building which is the focus of the regulator. More importantly, the cashback received is only benefiting the individual that made the purchase and not the whole building.”
Issa said the company’s vision is to align GAIN with the UAE government’s efforts to address service charges issues and contribute to the development of the real estate market.
“At GAIN, our vision is to break the traditional cycle of higher maintenance costs and service charges leading to higher rents and higher stress for everyone involved. GAIN is focused towards preparing the UAE ‘Towards the Next 50’ as directed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai,” he concluded.
(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)
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© ZAWYA 2021
