Yardi Aspire, a dynamic on-demand learning management platform is now available to Yardi clients in the Middle East. Yardi Aspire, formerly known as Yardi eLearning, offers online courses and live webinars in areas ranging from software skills and compliance to company policies and custom career development. By hosting all of an organization’s training-related course content and documents in a centralized platform, Aspire reduces the time needed to create, maintain and administer courses. Automated reporting functionality tracks learning progress and organizational trends. Recognizing the critical need for virtual training and the unique challenges faced by learners who are practicing social distancing, the Yardi Middle East support team and the Yardi Aspire team have worked to deliver creative learning options developed specifically for our clients in the Middle East. We’ve packaged the training style and product expertise of Yardi’s Middle East software support team into interactive, mobile-friendly courses in the Yardi Aspire Learning Management Solution. We are excited to announce the release of a new Middle East collection of online learning courses that ready to be delivered directly to you and your employees. We’ve taken the liberty of bundling our courses into role-specific learning plans that deliver effective training to the right individuals. “Aspire offers property managers a budget-friendly way to establish an immersive, intuitive training program very quickly and easily,” according to Neal Gemassmer, vice president of international for Yardi. “The platform’s role-based learning plans put the right topics in the right hands. The convenience and efficiency of Aspire advance employee career development and therefore organizational success.” This new partnership was conceived with one specific goal in mind- to assist clients like you with essential software training during a time when live classroom training is simply not an option. This is just one of many...

Note: the following originally appeared in Gulf Property and is reprinted here with permission. Rapid advances in technology continue to reshape how the real estate industry operates, and how quickly one adapts to change is critical for success. Yardi continues to see growth in the adoption of its digital platforms by clients wishing to improve their business models and respond to challenges. Catering to nearly every real estate vertical, Yardi has also now expanded its support resources for clients with free webinars and other online resources. While digitisation has been a steady movement in real estate, its adoption has only really accelerated in these recent weeks with every segment of the industry having to cope with work-from-home regulations not just in the UAE, but around the world. Contactless property management enabled by RentCafe A tool that has become extremely valuable due to current events is Yardi’s RentCafe app for residential real estate. With more than six million residential units using the app, RentCafe benefits tenants at various levels: it helps to check the unit listings or available inventory in the market, facilitates online application and encourages tenant self-service. “A tenant can log on to the app and search for properties, shortlists the units they like and do a 360-degree viewing of the property, similar to a walk-through,” explains Aditya Shah, head of operations, Middle East at Yardi. “When they decides on a unit, they can submit an online application and then subsequently the property management firm can generate a lease contract. The entire process is contactless and this has helped our customers greatly during the stay-home period.” Available on Apple and Android mobile devices, the RentCafe app also has tenant self-service features whereby a tenant can use the apps for paying fees, service charges,...

Riyadh Davids joined apartment manager and Yardi client Nasser Lootah Real Estate, part of the Nasser Adbullah Lootah group of companies, in 2010. As general manager, he is responsible for all asset development and operational management, including the implementation of Yardi Voyager as the company’s property management and accounting platform. He offered perspective on his company and its relationship with Yardi from his office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Q: Mr. Davids, how has Nasser Lootah Real Estate grown into one of the largest diversified groups in the Middle East? A: We consistently provide innovative technologies and comprehensive know-how that benefit customers in many Gulf countries. In our 25 years of existence we have become active in travel, shipping, cargo, logistics, real estate, IT and interactive media, among other industries. Our portfolio includes more than 30 buildings across all asset categories. We aimed to provide superior professional services in every field, resulting in satisfied clients. Q: How would you describe the company’s business culture and philosophy? A: We have a heritage of hospitality and collaboration. This environment of professionalism directly translates to the advancement of our clients’ interests as well as those of our employees. Q: What’s the most critical challenges to maintaining your brand identity and market position? A: The most immediate one is avoiding complacency with our achievements and continuing to focus on building a lasting legacy. We constantly seek to create new partnerships while securing higher levels of trust from our current clients, associates and employees. Q: What were the challenges that led you to select Yardi Voyager as your real estate technology platform? A: With our company growing across multiple verticals in the UAE, we needed a way to get an overview of the portfolio at a glance and communicate...

Editor’s note: Said Haider, regional director of Middle East sales for Yardi, recently spoke to Property Weekly about real estate technology’s transformation and regional implications. Technology is constantly evolving and making our lives easier. Said Haider believes that new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) are also changing the real estate landscape. Business models are changing, mainly because of digitization and advancing capabilities of applications, Haider said. Yardi is investing heavily in real estate technology, also known as proptech, developing innovative solutions to have a major influence on the industry. Yardi designs, develops and supports software solutions for real estate owners and managers. Its products are available for nearly every real estate vertical, including commercial, residential, investment management, homeowners’ associations, student housing, construction and more. Another area where technology is making a big impact is sustainability. Yardi has developed a platform called Yardi Pulse, a suite of energy solutions that handle utility billing and submetering, energy management and energy usage automation. Pulse helps Yardi clients achieve environmental goals and reduce energy costs. Haider explains Yardi’s support for the real estate sector in an interview with Property Weekly. How do Yardi’s solutions support the property sector? Haider: Yardi was founded in 1984 as a software start-up focused on property management and has grown to become one of the largest companies in the sector. Yardi’s innovative solutions benefit everyone in the chain, from corporations and developers to investors and clients. It offers a single connected solution that meets a broad range of business needs. We help real estate companies streamline their business processes and improve quality of service, which translates to improved performance. For example, the Yardi Voyager is an end-to-end platform combining financial and property management information in a single,...

Said Haider, regional director of Middle East sales for Yardi, spoke to us from his office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an update on the region’s rapidly growing real estate market. Q: Said, what are your principal responsibilities and how Yardi is performing in the Middle East? A: I manage our sales and business development efforts in the region. When we started our operations back in 2012, we had handful of clients; now we work with more than 80 clients in the Middle East and North Africa regions, mainly in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Without a doubt, it’s one of our fastest growing markets. Most of our clients have varied real estate portfolios and almost 90% of retail space in the UAE is managed with Yardi software. Q: When did Yardi enter the market and what was the impact? A: We launched Yardi Voyager there in 2012 and almost immediately saw high demand across multiple vertical markets. We were able to replace customized solutions with a Software as a Service platform that fulfills virtually all business operations requirements out of the box. This allowed companies to focus more on their business and worry less about the tools. As we continue to grow, we are introducing the Yardi Elevate Suite, the most comprehensive set of commercial asset management solutions available on the market. Q: What are some key trends in the region? A: The commercial, retail and residential sectors are growing fast. The real estate investment trust and shared office space concepts are also gaining footholds. Q: What’s our approach to the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular? A: Customer experience is the key to competing in this market and that’s how Yardi made its mark. We offer a single integrated solution...

Yardi client Red Sea Markets Company (RSMC) owns Red Sea Mall Jeddah in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia. Red Sea Mall is an iconic shopping and leisure destination and one of the largest shopping centres at Jeddah City. We interviewed Geji Masilela, the company’s CEO. He shared how the company’s use of Yardi Voyager helps them overcome business challenges. Q: What is your company’s background, heritage and history? A: RSMC has been existence for more than a decade. It was initially formed for the development of Red Sea Mall and other properties. Our aim for the next several years is to grow our assets under management. Q: Can you give a flavour of your company’s business culture and philosophy? A: It’s a happy and informal company culture. While we adhere to corporate norms of running a company, our leaders remain down-to-earth and approachable to our employees, customers and tenants. Q: What is your company’s brand in the current market? A: Red Sea Mall is an iconic shopping and leisure destination and one of the largest shopping centres at Jeddah City. The mall has 242,200 square meters of built area and includes a five-star hotel, a seven-story office building, and external and undercover parking areas. The mall blends international and local brands with a variety of restaurants, cafes, diners and entertainment options. Q: Could you give some understanding of the number or value of the assets involved? A: We’re still in the formative stage in terms of assets. We current have one operating asset and another asset under development. We’re actively looking for growth opportunities. Q: What’s your role? A: I’m primarily responsible for identifying and executing those growth initiatives. Q: What motivates you? A: I have a love of shopping malls, serving mall customers and...

The Gulf Cooperation Councill (GCC) has witnessed significant growth in the number of real estate investment trusts (REITs) across the region, with over seven publicly listed REITs established to date. Since 2006, regulations have perm itted REITs in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), but previous market downturns delayed any real progress within this particular sector of real estate. The first REIT in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was established in 2010. More recently in the UAE, ENBD REIT and the Emirates REIT were listed on NASDAQ Dubai with market capitalisations of $261 million and $289 million respectively. In other GCC countries, such as Bahrain and Kuwait, there are now private REITs with total sizes of $80 million and $100 million, respectively. The introduction of REITs in Saudi Arabia by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in 2016 was part of the National Transformation Program (NTP) and Saudi Vision 2030. This included a regulatory framework with a minimum of 100 million Saudi riyals ($26.67 million) capital for REITs, and borrowing not rising above 50 percent of the fund’s total asset value. The market in Saudi Arabia is divided between two REIT investment strategies, the mixed-asset and the specific-asset class approach, with a tendency towards the specialisation of REITs, along with a focus on asset classes that are common to the region, such as office, retail, education, healthcare and logistics. The making of the REIT The goal of the REIT is to provide investors with access to high-grade, low-risk, income-generating real estate assets. About 45 percent of investment professionals in the region see the GCC’s real estate market as mature enough for REITs to surge. Although tax efficiency has less impact on the REITs in the GCC, it offers liquidity and flexibility for investors and real...

According to a market study carried out by the analysts at Technavio, a business reporting service, the retail market in Saudi Arabia will grow steadily at a rate of above 7 percent by 2020. The recent influx of global retailers in Saudi Arabia will result in the steady growth of the market for the next two years, the report projects. To prepare to meet the local, regional and international retail development trends, the Red Sea Mall’s owners chose to adopt the leading cloud-based retail real estate management solution from Yardi, a global technology company with a strong presence in the Middle East. The intent of purchasing the software is to optimise shopping centre operations by managing the asset efficiently and preparing for future growth. Red Sea Mall is one of the biggest shopping centres at Jeddah City, it is located at the northern suburbs on Malik Road. The mall includes 242,200 square meters built area, with a five-star hotel, seven story office building, and both external and undercover parking areas, all of which are linked to the 18 mall entrances. “Among various investments, the retail sector is a major contributor to the increased economic diversification regionally. Accordingly, to enhance the operation of the Red Sea Mall, we invested in the Yardi Commercial Suite,” said Aidrous Al Bar, Executive Member of Red Sea Markets Limited, owning company of the Red Sea Mall. Yardi is a leading, full-business solution for retail property management that centralizes data and automates workflows to help property managers work more efficiently, reduce costs and achieve successful retail center operations. “The software platform will not only allow management to streamline core property management operations, it will also enhance its marketing of rentable spaces, enhance retailer on-boarding and relations, and gain deeper insight...

Arabian Centres Company Ltd (ACCL) became Saudi Arabia’s largest developer, owner and operator of retail malls by offering international-standard quality shopping and entertainment. In formulating a strategy to build on that success, ACCL’s executive team came to realize that expanding its portfolio across the Kingdom depends as much on harnessing new technology as on providing high-quality retail and leisure offerings. The task of keeping ACCL’s property management software in tune with the company’s strategy lies principally with Rashed Alothman, ACCL’s chief information officer. “A desire to take on new challenges and drive improvements and achievements for the business is my primary motivation,” Alothman said. ACCL, a subsidiary of Fawaz Al Hokair Group, has grown to encompass 19 shopping centers in 10 cities since its founding in 2001.  Its more than 1 million square meters of total gross leasable area (GLA) represent a quarter of all organized GLA in the Kingdom.  ACCL transformed the Kingdom’s retail sector with a commitment to create unparalleled destinations for shoppers, leisure seekers and retailers. ACCL has embraced an aggressive strategy designed to reinforce its position as the Kingdom’s premier mall operator. Eight developments in the pipeline will nearly double its portfolio to approximately 2 million square meters of GLA.  The growth plans are part of a larger goal.  “We seek to advance beyond developing mere functional properties.  We aspire to create living, vibrant and integrated communities and enhance the quality of life for tenants and customers alike,” Alothman said. To achieve that goal and make sure ACCL properties remain the destination of choice for 132 million annual visitors and 3,600 retail outlets, Alothman is spearheading a digital transformation program.  The initiative emphasizes expanding technology capability and utilization in such areas as business-to-business communication, social media and numerous operational procedures. ...

Aditya Shah, director of Middle East operations at Yardi, writes on the rise of Cloud-based technology in FM activities. Tenants and residents within both, the com­mercial and residen­tial real estate sectors continue to have ris­ing expectations for technology – most notably about how it will impact service levels and enhance their cus­tomer experience and occupancy. From a management perspective, a com­petitive environment breeds the need for fast­er customer-focused services that are highly efficient to streamline operations and reduce costs, while also improving overall returns. While technology has played a role in the field of FM for a number of years, the advent of the smart apps and an ever-increasing drive towards mobility has seen some seriously sig­nificant developments – ones that offer this particular section of the real estate industry much more than just improved productivity. The Cloud is here – it has been for some time – and more and more businesses are adopting cloud-based solutions as the cor­nerstone to enhance numerous aspects of their operations. Mobility undoubtedly of­fers managers a far greater level of flexibility than ever thought before, and with all these technologies working in synergy, a facili­ties manager is now no longer reactive, but can manage their day-to-day operations for properties, entire portfolios, and tenants and residents with proactive foresight. The solutions that are born out of this ever-evolving environment can boost cus­tomer loyalty by improving speed of re­sponse, driving down the cost of processes and procedures, and delivering a degree of flexibility and scalability to suit a wide range of business models. While adoption was previously slow, the sector is embracing these opportunities. Managers and engineers can engage in workflows that improve productivity and time management – be that for scheduling preventative maintenance, allocating prox­imity-related tasks, recording evidence, or...

Editor’s note: The following interview with Aditya Shah, Yardi’s Director for Middle East Operations, recently appeared in Gulf Property magazine and is reprinted here with permission. Yardi Systems, a US-based large asset management and property management software solutions provider, now has more than 1,000 commercial properties, 50 shopping malls and 50,000 residential units using its software in the Middle East. “We have grown 30 percent in the last ten months alone,” says Aditya Shah, Director for Middle East Operations at Yardi Systems, told Gulf Property in an exclusive interview. The company has signed up with Mall of Qatar last month to automate the mall’s property management and accounting system with Yardi Voyager 7S, the company’s new mobile-enabled, label-compatible software as a service property management and accounting platform. Mall of Qatar will have over 5.4 million square feet of built up area, more than 500 retail units, over 100 dining operations, a 5-star hotel and more than 7,000 car parking spots when its construction is complete in the third quarter of 2016. It will host an estimated 20 million visitors in its first year. Since its founding, Yardi has set the standard for real estate software solutions with a combination of responsiveness and technical innovation. In an interview with Gulf Property, Shah detailed Yardi’s activities in the region. Gulf Property: Could you share with us the number of Middle East properties that are currently under management using Yardi’s solutions? AS: Yardi has a broad range of clients that manage a cross section of asset classes that include, but are not limited to, residential office, and retail. There are approximately 50 retail malls, 1,000 commercial properties and over 50,000 residential units that are currently managed on Yardi solutions across the Middle East. These include some of...

When it opens to the public in summer 2016, the Mall of Qatar in Al-Rayyan will be a modern paradise smack dab in the in the middle of the Qatar desert. With over 2,755,561 square feet of Gross Leasable Area, upon completion the Mall of Qatar will cater to shoppers’ every whim. Massive in scale, the planned three-story structure will span the length of 50 soccer fields. Upon completion, visitors to the Mall of Qatar will be able to sample food from over 100 restaurants, buy products from over 500 stores and participate in a variety of unique entertainment experiences, including the largest IMAX Laser 3D projection system in the world. Envisioned as a “sophisticated, urban-lifestyle market, the mall will be outfitted with vaulted glass ceilings, sidewalk cafes, and unique water features. A main feature of the project is the multi-level Family Entertainment Complex, which will include a 10-lane bowling alley and a 19-screen Cineplex. For fans of live performance, the mall’s Festival Stage will host professional acts from around the world on a 360-degree, multi-lift, rotating stage outfitted with the latest sound and lighting technology. As the mall’s floor space spreads out across the desert, so do its recreational opportunities. A not-even-close-to-exhaustive list of additional amusements includes an Angry Birds theme park, a mini-roller coaster and a flight simulator. An indoor “edutainment” park called “Juniverse” will allow children to play at space exploration and firefighting. Older patrons can participate in “Escape the Room” challenges, where teams work together to unlock puzzles in a set amount of time. Up to 7000 automobiles can be accommodated in the mall’s parking lot, most under canopies designed to deflect and control the midday sun and bathe vehicles in merciful shade. For commuters without cars, sleek, modern metro...

A year ago, Yardi announced the opening of a new office in Dubai, UAE, offering the global real estate technology provider the chance to better serve clients and expand our presence in the region. In just 12 months, major client growth and significant expansion of the staffing resources in the Dubai office have taken place. We caught up with Said Haider, Regional Sales Manager, who leads our business development efforts in Dubai. “Besides being a global private held company, the adaptive culture that is aligned to Yardi business goals routinely outperform its competitors in the niche real estate solutions market,” Haider noted. Read on for more of his insights on Yardi’s Middle Eastern expansion.   Q: Yardi’s growth in the Middle East marks an exciting new regional expansion for the global company. Tell us about the company’s focus there? A: While Yardi has had a handful of clients in the Middle East for the past four years, our client base has grown 300% growth over the past twelve months.   We see tremendous demand from a broad range of real estate investment, asset, property managers and developers for a more effective asset and property management platform. The demand in the Middle East is aligned to the increased focus by owners of real estate on more effective and focused asset management and tenant services. We see this across the major real estate sectors including retail, office, industrial, residential and mixed use type of properties. Q:  Where is the office serving the Middle East located and what staffing resources are in place? A: The Yardi Dubai office was established in October 2012, in Dubai Internet City (DIC). Dubai Internet City (DIC) is the Middle East and North Africa’s largest ICT hub, and was the logical place for...

Yardi, a leading developer of software solutions for the real estate investment, asset and property management industry has opened a new office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Dubai office will be a hub for regional business development, project management, consulting, training and technical support services. Following strong growth and demand for solutions and services across the Middle East, Neal Gemassmer, vice president of Yardi Asia Pacific & Middle East, said: “We have seen tremendous demand by the market for more integrated real estate solutions. This is an exciting phase in Yardi’s development in the region; we have maintained a strong, focused path, driven by our commitment to our clients in the Middle East. This next phase of development will enable us to further broaden and deepen the range of solutions and support services offered locally and across the region.” Visit Yardi.com for more...