July 23, 2026 | RT Bureau | UAE | Developer
As Dubai’s real estate market closes Q1 2026 at a record AED 252 billion in transaction value, the pressure on developer marketing teams has never been more visible. Simranjeet Singh, Head of Marketing at Meraki Developers, has a clear-eyed view of what is working, what is not, and where the industry is quietly getting it wrong.
To begin with, Singh is unconvinced by the case for rapid-response marketing. “People do not buy a home because a developer reacted cleverly to a headline. They buy because they trust the developer can deliver, and that trust is built over months and years,” he says. The work that actually matters, he explains, happens out of sight. “The marketing function that adds value is not the one pushing a press release out. It is the one feeding the sales team and the broker network with clear, current talking points,” Singh adds. Most of that work, he notes, never appears in public. “It lives in a broker WhatsApp group, in a sales toolkit, in a buyer call,” he says.
The AI Search Shift
Singh also believes the industry is underestimating how quickly AI-driven search has reshaped the buyer journey. “A noticeable share of our international enquiries now arrive with pre-formed views that did not come from our website or from a portal,” he shares. “AI surfaces what is consistent across sources, not what is loudest in any single channel. A developer that has been overstating in brochures, soft on facts in PR, and inconsistent across regulatory filings now has that inconsistency exposed at the start of the buyer journey,” Singh explains. His response has been straightforward: less brochure language, more verifiable data.
On Billboards and Budgets
Singh is measured but direct when it comes to out-of-home spending. He argues that the Sheikh Zayed Road billboard war is a visibility play that is frequently mistaken for brand strategy, and that the cost per qualified enquiry, when tracked properly, is meaningfully worse than what the same budget delivers in targeted digital or broker enablement. “Most agencies will not tell you that, because they earn on the placement,” he says.
For those stepping into a developer marketing role for the first time, his counsel is equally direct. “The biggest thing to unlearn is funnel orthodoxy from B2C tech, retail, or DTC,” he says. “A Dubai property purchase is a months-long, multi-stakeholder, often cross-border decision. Last-click attribution will lie to you in this market,” he warns, adding that the teams which recognise this early will be the ones with a meaningful advantage over the next twelve to eighteen months.
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