AED 1B Sold at Launch of Rixos Residential Project

The Project:

Following their partnership on the St. Regis Residences, East & West Properties reached out to Driven Properties and its sister company, Refine Development Management, for the second time. This time, with a unique set of challenges facing its Rixos Residences project.

Located behind a neighboring 200-meter tall building, the Rixos development would potentially face obstructed views for some or all of its units. Indeed, East & West knew this was a problem. A clear view from a Dubai high rise can account for as much as a 40% increase in unit pricing. Without a clear solution, the developer risked hundreds of millions in potential revenue.

Furthermore, East & West Properties needed to launch in an expedited 5-month time frame. The Driven team accepted the challenge and was brought on as a strategic partner, advisor, and design optimization consultant.

The Solution:

To address the view-related revenue risk, Driven Properties and Refine looked to real estate best practices around the world, specifically in New York City’s Central Park. A common problem in the New York skyline is blocked views. Building high-rise structures with a high slenderness ratio—one that gets progressively thinner as the building gets taller—is a frequently used solution in the New York skyline. With this in mind, the Driven team presented East & West a revised building design that optimized the Floor Area Ratio (FAR). The new plan increased the number of floors from 50 to 90, and pushed more than 50% of the units above the obstruction, instantly unlocking the project’s revenue potential.

Additionally, because of the strong demand for Dubai penthouses, the Driven team recommended building a three-level penthouse on the top six floors, called Sky Palaces. These ultra-luxury residences featured 360-degree views of Downtown Dubai, which significantly increased the building’s appeal to this market segment.

Jamal Mustafa, Projects Director, from East & West explains, “The solutions that the Driven team provided allowed us to maximize sales. It’s safe to say that these recommendations increased revenue potential by greater than 35 percent.”

The Driven Properties team also managed the operational, legal, and regulatory requirements of the project. The team conducted an-in depth review of all legal documents, provided recommendations, and with East & West’s approval, got them into final form. Additionally, the team set up an escrow account, ensuring that East & West were in full compliance with RERA requirements.

Next up, was the creation of a detailed sales and go-to-market approach. The marketing team developed a comprehensive 360-degree marketing strategy for the project launch. The strategy included traditional advertising, digital marketing, social media, public relations, content marketing, lead generation activities, and a major launch event. Furthermore, the team decided to split out the pre-launch and launch phases of the project roll-out. Following approval from the Rixos brand, the team developed pre-launch collateral and sales aids, digital ads, a bespoke website, branded video assets, and an animated virtual 3-D flythrough.

For the pre-launch expression of interest (EOI) phase, Driven targeted exclusive partners, brokerages, and select clients, leveraging established relationships to secure initial interest in the project. This group received detailed project collateral and invitations to private briefings. The approach worked and yielded a foundational list of interested prospective buyers.

During the pre-launch phase, the team neared completion of the dedicated sales center, which offered visitors the chance to learn more about the project, view sales and marketing collateral, and experience the 3-D flythrough.

For the launch phase, the team planned and executed a major invite-only launch event at Bluewaters Island on January 31, 2024. Nearly 500 EOI invitees attended this exclusive event, which was picked up by several local news outlets. The Driven team managed all aspects of the event, from venue selection, on-ground operations, to marketing and media outreach.

Following the launch event, Driven Properties and Refine began to aggressively market the project. The team’s lead generation activities saw an influx of prospective buyers who were welcomed to the Rixos Branded Residences sales center. The team of dedicated on-site agents fully managed sales operations and guided buyers through the process from start to finish.This included everything from reservation forms and mortgage approval to payment collection and conveyancing. Driven's propriety customer relationship management (CRM) software allowed for transparent sales progression reporting and analysis and kept East & West fully aligned on sales activities and progress toward sales goals.

The Results:

The success of the two-phase strategy was evident. At launch, the project sold over AED 1 billion ($275M), representing approximately 83% of the development’s total value. Within the next three months, the property sold out completely at a healthy per square foot price of AED 3,500. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2027.