“Currently, real estate listings services, as well as listing practices in Bahrain, are haphazard and often conflicting. Most listing services allow rogue real estate agents to claim unauthorized property listings as their own, exposing end consumers to misrepresented property listings with often falsified information. mlsBH, the first service to address these malpractices, will create a reliable, accurate and comprehensive database of the country’s real estate by introducing user type based listing services instead of just property type. This will ensure only rightful representatives of property can list on the platform,” said Sadaqat R. A. Sattar, the Solution architect and Managing Director of Premium eBusiness Solution.

mlsBH has been developed around the world renowned listing model of Multiple Listings Service. However it has been extensively customized and conceptually enhanced to cater to the local real estate industry. The solution is a hub for a suite of sub solutions, each catering to a specific segment of the market. For Sale Rent By Owners (fsrboBH) is a direct owner’s listing interface of mlsBH dedicated to all property owner classes, while Realt or BH is exclusively for licensed realtor classes of Bahrain and Realty BH is the listing display solution of all mlsBH listings.

Commenting further on the service’s roll out plans, Mr. Sattar mentioned that the solution was initially slated for a rollout in September, but after initial tests and enhancement took longer than anticipated, the plan was revised to roll out a stable beta version to the market in order to minimize downtime that would have affected user experience. The company has now started issuing pre-launch listing subscriptions to real estate operators, developers, real estate agencies and property managers.

“We have decided to first secure large portfolio listings of direct owners and real estate operators because there is no solution dedicated to upholding the listing rights of these user groups. Simultaneously we will get active and leading real estate agencies as well as property managers onboard to participate with their exclusive listings. Their biggest incentive is instant access to direct owner listings, something realtors are always on the look out for. Finally, once a sufficient portfolio of listings and realtors is secured, we shall then shift focus on RealtyBH to be the most comprehensive property listings site displaying mlsBH listings in a manner no other conventional website can. Furthermore, we would also expedite listing syndication arrangements with realtors and other independent realty portals whereby we will distribute verified and centralized listings of mlsBH to their websites in order to attack a wider range of target audience,” said Mr. Sattar.

Bahrain’s real estate industry is one of the most matured markets in the region and has the proven potential to attract foreign investments. However, industry practices are behind international standards especially when it comes to listing acquisitions, with most realtors unaware of the market composition and what role various industry participants play in driving the market. Furthermore, most participants heavily bank on conventional classifieds sites without realizing that information present on these sites is often misrepresented or duplicated and thus unreliable. mlsBH sets these listing benchmarks for all user classes to follow, thereby creating a more transparent environment for Bahrain’s realty.

© Press Release 2016

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