Karl Naim: Maria Gracia, Head of MENA at Evoost AI. Welcome to the show.
Maria Gracia: Thank you so much, Karl.
Karl Naim: Maria, it’s great to have you on. And we’re going to talk about a very interesting topic: real estate, real estate, real estate. Decisions on real estate portfolios or assets shape entire cities, especially here in the region, yet they are often made on intuition and fragmented data. So how should developers, investment funds and institutions decide what to bring to market, and when is the right time?
Maria Gracia: Well, thank you, Karl. Yes, that’s actually a problem, right? The fact that nowadays all the decisions that we take in real estate are taken with very little information. And that’s really a problem, right? Because any decision on real estate can affect how many, many people live and work for decades. So we need to make sure that the information that we put in front of all the different stakeholders is the right one. So for us, as Evoost, the right answer to this question is [unclear: “Do you need to understand your demand by the time you start analyzing a project? Or do you want to make a decision on real estate?”] You might have to use a market study that is obsolete, or you are using data that is often not connected. So in the end, it all comes down to gut feeling. So if you know your demand, if you know what they are needing, how much they are willing to pay, most probably the decision and the answer to the question is going to become much clearer. So that’s what we are actually trying to do at Evoost, right? We have built an intelligence that really understands real estate. So far we are [unclear: “cutting”] with more than 5 million market records, and we are putting this at the service of all the stakeholders in the region, so that whichever company, whichever director has to make a decision about our country, our cities, we need to make sure that they have the full picture. And all of this obviously leads to more transparency, and hopefully it trickles down to pricing as well, and all of that.
Karl Naim: So you’ve called Abu Dhabi your home for the past two years, and Abu Dhabi is a great place for a testing ground. Now, what does building here give you that Madrid wouldn’t, for example?
Maria Gracia: Yeah. Well, we are [unclear: “probably”] an Abu Dhabi company. We were born actually in Hub71, but most of our founding team are Spanish, so it made sense that Spain as well became our playground, let’s say, from the very beginning. For us, whenever you are operating in so many different countries, so far we are operating in six different countries, you can understand, of course, that the challenges that we need to face in all of these different markets are absolutely different. So it’s very important for us that we are able to adapt our technology and our intelligence to all the different challenges, right? But it’s all coming from [unclear: “the same”]. So, just to give you an example, in Spain, the main challenge is you have to be able to sell strategically, because the margin for developers is the most important thing, right? However, here in the region, the demand is so strong that selling is not really a problem, right? However, here we have a great opportunity, which is we need to keep on building this country. There are districts to be opened. We need to keep on building communities, right? And the answer here is, with all the pieces of land that you have, what’s the right order to do that? Which is the plot of land that you need to release to the market, so that you find the best investor that is going to be helping you shape that [unclear: “patient”]? So that was the main switch that we saw here. We came from basically giving that intelligence to the people to be able to sell projects, to come here and be able to shape cities, shape districts. That’s the most important thing.
Karl Naim: Yeah, I’ve been in Abu Dhabi since 2011, and I was one of the first tenants on Reem Island. There were only Sun and Sky Towers, and I’ve seen how it’s grown in the last 15 years. And to your point, there’s a very different speed between Madrid and the UAE, or any other city in the world. Now, your clients range from developers to investment funds and public institutions, all of whom have large real estate portfolios. What changes for them when every decision is backed by live intelligence rather than a one-off study? What’s the real value proposition you bring to them?
Maria Gracia: Very good. So you’re right. Every stakeholder in real estate, any investment fund, developer or public institution, whenever they need to make a decision on where they are taking their portfolio to, you need to pass through this underwriting process. But honestly, these market studies, these underwriting processes that we usually run, or we used to run in the past, are just useful for one moment, which is the moment you have to make the decision on whether you are proceeding with a deal or not. But as we all know, the problem that real estate has is that any project can last from two to even 30 years. I can tell you some projects in Spain that have been lasting for three years so far. And of course, during this time many things can change. The demand can change, the market can change, new competitors may arise. So that, of course, is changing the way you are facing your project. So, as I said, this intelligence needs to be built on data. And the fact that we have been working not only in six different countries, but also with 3.5 millions of total dollars of GDV, which is gross development value, is teaching this intelligence, so that every time this intelligence is giving you a decision-making process, it’s feeding all the time from all this experience from different markets and different projects. So the main switch here is that this is not just about data. It’s an actual proactive intelligence that will be backing you up on any decision that can affect your portfolio. I always like to say, just as an example, it’s like having the best army of consultants and asset managers backing up any decision that you have to make on your project. That’s the main difference.
Karl Naim: Now, [unclear: “in 30s”], there’s obviously something broken when you talk about off-plan residential being sold today. What is broken today, and how do you fix it with that intelligence?
Maria Gracia: Well, you know, in this market we all know that the demand is so strong, right? So it’s basically working amazingly well. But the main problem, the main challenge that any developer has in this country, and we have had these conversations with them, is that they only know who their buyer is once the transaction is done. But before you get to that sale, there are many, many things you have to do before the launching process. You have the marketing. You have the pricing. And on top of that, you have your own objectives as a company. Some of the developers will want to sell faster. Some others want to sell internationally. Some want to maximize the pricing. Whichever your objective is, you cannot make the right decision if you don’t know the demand beforehand. So what we are trying to help them out with here is, if you can have all this information beforehand, you’re probably going to be able to be way more successful in your project.
Karl Naim: Maria, thank you very much for the time and the insights. Very interesting. And we wish you and the team at Evoost the best of luck for the next decades to come in Abu Dhabi. Thank you for joining us.
Maria Gracia: Thank you, Karl. Thank you so much.
