Dubai-based Huspy has Pakistan property buyers on its radar

DUBAI: Huspy, the Dubai-based proptech startup that in June announced one of MENA’s largest Series A fundraising rounds, has Pakistan’s buyers and investors on its radar as it doubles down on the growth opportunity for its property platform.

“Pakistanis have been among the top 10 nationalities of home-buyers in Dubai for a number of years. They, in fact, own over $10 billion worth of properties in Dubai,” Azzam Fakhoury, Head of Real Estate at Huspy, told Business Recorder in an exclusive interview recently.

“We work to help both end-users and investors in Pakistan as well as other countries by finding the property, getting financing from their bank of choice at the lowest interest rate, and closing the deal.”

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In response to a query on target market, Fakhoury, who is responsible for increasing verified property listings and property sales on Huspy after having built and scaled one of the mortgage channels, said the company works with buyers across the entire range of prices.

Founded in 2020 by Jad Antoun and Khalid Ashmawy during the pandemic, Huspy was developed to facilitate the home-buying journey by leveraging technology. It helps clients search through verified listings and look for financing solutions, partnering with banks, real estate agents, and mortgage consultants, as it looks to become a one-stop online shop for buyers looking for properties.

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Currently, it has 1,500 secondary listings of properties in Dubai, the base of operation, with plans to “extensively invest in technology development, double down on growth in the UAE and Spain, and expand across Europe”, it said in its announcement of the $37-million Series A round in June.

Back then, Huspy said it has reached $2 billion in annualised gross merchandise volume, growing at 25% month-on-month to become one of the largest housing platforms in the UAE. The Series A financing was led by Sequoia Capital India along with participation from US-based Founders Fund and Fifth Wall that made their Middle East investment debut in this round as well as Dubai-based COTU Ventures and VentureSouq.

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A year earlier, Huspy had raised $10 million through a seed round that saw VentureFriends, Islamabad-based Zayn Capital along with US-based Plug and Play and two other investors taking part.

Its fund-raising rounds underscore UAE’s strides in the startup space with nearly $700 million raised across 85 deals in the first half of 2022. In terms of both number of deals and amount raised, fintech remained the most popular industry with 28 deals helping raise an amount of $234 million, according to MAGNiTT’s H1 2022 UAE Venture Investment Report.

Huspy’s expansion plan comes as buyers and investors adopt a bullish stance on Dubai’s property market, where prime real estate prices have surged more than 70% over the past year, the biggest gain on Knight Frank’s global index.

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The emirate’s luxury property market has stood out in defiance of a global slowdown, with the first half of 2022 seeing residential real estate transaction volumes up 60% with an 85% rise in the value of property sold, property consultancy Betterhomes said in a report published July.

Pakistanis were among the top-10 buyers during the six-month period with India leading the list followed by the UK, Italy, Russia and France, in that order.

Dubai’s property market, which contributes around a third to its economy, is recovering courtesy the government’s agile response to the Covid-19 pandemic and initiatives aimed at giving expatriates a bigger stake in the economy.

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However, S&P Global Ratings said in October that Dubai’s real estate recovery was fragile and uneven, and an oversupply of residential properties would pressure prices in the long run.

Fakhoury, however, said Dubai’s policy response will guard against any curve balls that come its way.

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“We don’t see any signs of demand slowing down on property, regardless of how interest rate fluctuates. They remain affordable to purchase whether for investment or living purposes.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022