Cost of Real Estate App Development Like Property Finder?

Did you know the residential real estate market in Dubai, UAE, witnessed an increase of 43.9% in 2023, recording more than 17,741 transactions in just the first two months? Currently, the real estate sector is playing a crucial role in diversifying the economy of the United Arab Emirates. Since the UAE government aims to expand its economy and reduce the reliance on oil and gas revenues, real estate activities now contribute around 5.5% to the country’s total GDP.

Real estate is considered one of the most lucrative markets for residents in the UAE, all thanks to the rapid urbanization and population growth, creating a high demand for housing and commercial properties. This demand presents significant investment opportunities for residents looking to capitalize on the growing market. In addition, the UAE offers a favorable business environment for people looking to invest in the real-estate sector with investor-friendly policies, tax incentives, and a stable economy.

As per reports, Property Finder, a renowned real estate app in the UAE, has achieved more than 16 million page views monthly, with approximately 89% of the traffic coming organically from the UAE. In addition, the real-estate app holds a substantial 65% market share in the region. The reports further suggest that the app has an annual revenue of around $50 million.

Considering the YoY increase in revenue for the real estate app, the most common question that comes into the mind of multiple stakeholders currently looking to invest in the same is the cost of real estate app development like Property Finder. Well, this blog will help you dive right into the details of creating a similar real-estate app, the factors that affect the costs, the features that go into creating a lucrative mobile app, etc.

To give you a rough idea, the real estate app development cost in the UAE varies from $40,000 to $300,000 (150k AED to 1100k AED). Several factors impact the overall development costs, such as the app’s complexity, the features to be integrated into the app, the location of the hired app development firm, etc.

Before diving into the details of the factors that affect the cost of developing the real estate app in the UAE, let us first look at the business model of the Property Finder app and understand the reasons that add to its success.

Understanding the Property Finder App’s Business Model: What Adds to Its Overall Success

Property Finder is a real estate app available in the UAE region that has strategically leveraged the growing real estate market. The app acts as a reliable and efficient solution for real estate needs for people across the UAE, helping them find the properties of their dreams.

Several factors contribute to the success of an app like Property Finder:

Comprehensive Property Listings: The app’s wide selection of property listings appeals to users and increases their likelihood of finding their desired property. The users can access detailed property information, including property photos, descriptions, and pricing, allowing them to make informed decisions.

Intuitive UI/UX: The app features a user-friendly interface, intuitive design, and easy navigation. This ensures a seamless and enjoyable user experience, allowing users to engage with the app and return for future searches, increasing overall retention.

Brand Collaborations: The app can offer users a diverse range of properties through collaborations with real estate agencies and developers. This ensures that users can access the most current and relevant listings available across their selected location.

Localization: The app tailors it to the local market by incorporating language support, currency conversions, and location-based features. This adds value and convenience for users, enhancing its appeal.

According to Grand View Research, the global real estate software ecosystem is expected to witness a market size of 25.39 billion, witnessing a CAGR of 12.8% from 2023 to 2030. The report segmentation suggests that the UAE is one of the regions expected to witness a higher share in the revenue, all thanks to the rising preference for homeownership and increasing demand for residential property across the residents. Thus, now is the right time if you, too, wish to create a platform like Property Finder and increase your digital presence to leverage the growing market size.

Interactive Features to Build an App Like Property Finder

The app incorporates features capable of enhancing the overall search and exploration experience for target users across the UAE. Below are some of the intuitive Property Finder app features that have helped the brand climb the real estate success ladder in this digital ecosystem. It is vital to understand that implementing these features can affect the overall cost to develop a real estate app like Property Finder.

Property Listings

The app has a wide database of properties across multiple areas of multiple regions, including apartments, villas, townhouses, commercial properties, and more. The users can easily browse across varied property types and choose the right fit per their requirements.

Advanced Search Filters

The app allows users to apply various search filters, including location, price range, number of bedrooms, amenities, and property type. These filters assist in refining the search results and locate properties matching the user’s preferences.

Property Details

Each property that is listed on the app offers comprehensive information, including the size, floor plans, photos, descriptions, and key features to the users. This enables them to obtain essential details about the properties they are interested in.

Interactive Maps and Neighborhood Insights

Property Finder incorporates interactive maps that showcase the locations of properties, along with nearby amenities, schools, transportation options, and other points of interest. This valuable feature empowers users to thoroughly evaluate the neighborhood and make well-informed decisions.

Saved Searches and Notifications

Users can save searches and set up alerts for new properties that match their criteria. This feature guarantees that users are always informed about the latest listings that align with their preferences.

Contact Owners

Allowing the users to directly contact the owners, agents is one of the most sought-after real estate app features. Property Finder is a platform that enables users to communicate directly with property agents or owners. Through the app, users can easily contact them to inquire about property details, schedule viewings, or negotiate deals.

User Reviews and Ratings

The app enables users to share reviews and ratings for properties and agents, offering valuable insights to other users and promoting transparency in the real estate market.

Mortgage Calculator

Property Finder offers a mortgage calculator tool to assist users in estimating their monthly mortgage payments. Users can obtain an accurate estimation of their potential monthly payments by inputting the property price, down payment, interest rate, and loan term.

Language and Currency Support

The app offers language support for various user preferences and includes currency conversion features to cater to a diverse user base in the UAE and beyond.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Real Estate App Like Property Finder?

As revealed earlier, the cost of developing a real estate app similar to Property Finder varies from $40,000 to $300,000 (150k AED to 1100k AED). Several factors can impact the overall cost of developing the mobile app, such as the UI/UX design, the technologies integrated into the app, features, the location of the app development firm, etc.

In simple terms, the overall complexity is the most vital factor that impacts the Property Finder app development cost. An app with a highly complex interface and an extensive feature list will ultimately cost you more than one with a simple UI/UX design and a minimal feature list.

Factors That Affect the Cost to Develop Real Estate Apps Like Property Finder

Multiple factors can impact the cost of real estate app development like Property Finder. Starting from the integrated feature list, interface designs, and wireframes to the location of the development company, let us understand the real estate app development cost in Dubai and the factors that affect it in detail below:

UI/UX Design

The quality and complexity of the UI/UX design significantly impact the overall cost to develop a real estate app like Property Finder. Investing in a visually appealing and user-friendly design involves additional design efforts and expenses.

App Platform

Choosing the platform for app development, such as iOS, Android, or going for cross-platform app development, affects the overall Property Finder app development cost. To optimize the initial budget, it is usually recommended to start with a single platform and then expand to other platforms when the app gains traction in the market.

Team Size

The size of the hired development team, whether in-house, outsourced, or freelancers, influences the overall real estate app development cost. Each option has its own cost considerations that must be evaluated while hiring a dedicated team. To leverage the latest technological resources while keeping the budget at an optimized level, it is recommended to outsource your project to a suitable app development company in UAE like Appinvenntiv.

Location of the App Development Agency

The geographical location of the app development agency impacts the cost to make a platform like Property Finder, as different regions have varying hourly rates. The hourly rates of development tend to differ across regions like Eastern Europe, Asia, America, and Africa.

Data Integration

Property Finder, like many real estate apps, relies on integration with multiple data sources, including property databases, APIs, and third-party services. They offer users recent and accurate information about the listed properties. However, the overall process of fetching these data sources can be rather complex and time-consuming, thus, affecting the overall development costs.

Location-based Services

Incorporating location-based features such as geolocation, proximity search, or map integration into the app will require additional development efforts and incur extra costs. These features involve complex programming and integration with external APIs, which may require specialized expertise and more implementation time.

Security and Compliance

Real estate apps must adhere to data protection regulations due to their handling of sensitive user data. This necessitates implementing robust security measures, which may increase the overall development costs.

[Also Read: How Adoption of Blockchain in Real Estate Changing the Scenario?]

Virtual Tours

This is the digital era and the users prefer to take virtual tours of the places they wish to buy or rent, before actually visiting it. Thus, incorporating features like AR/VR, metaverse, etc., to offer a fully immersive experience to your home buyers can affect the overall Property Finder app development cost.

Maintenance

Proper app maintenance, including bug fixes, upgrades, and technology adoption, is necessary to gain traction in the market. The organization has to incur ongoing maintenance costs to ensure optimal performance and adaptability to market demands.

Tech Stack

The choice of technology stack also affects the cost of developing the custom real estate app. Incorporating the latest technologies and resources to create a feature-rich app like Property Finder can impact the overall development expenses.

Features

The number and complexity of features in the app directly impact the development cost. A more extensive feature set typically requires more development time and resources.

Understanding the Real Estate App Development Process

A custom real estate app development process involves highly effective communication with clients to carry out the exact requirements specified during the initial discussions. Here is the transparent real estate app development process we carry out at Appinventiv to build the app of your dreams:

Requirement Gathering:

This stage involves engaging in extensive discussions with the clients to comprehensively understand their vision, goals, and requirements for the real estate app. During this stage, our experts gather detailed information about the target audience, desired features, functionalities, and any unique aspects of the type of real estate app you wish to develop.

UI/UX Design:

During this phase, the company’s skilled designers diligently work on creating wireframes and prototypes. These wireframes and prototypes represent the app’s structure, flow, and user interface. The designers prioritize creating an intuitive and visually appealing design to enhance the overall user experience.

App Development:

In this stage, our skilled developers commence the coding process for the real estate app. They prioritize implementing robust functionality, ensuring smooth performance and compatibility across various platforms. We utilize the latest technologies and frameworks for implementing the front-end and back-end components and the essential app features.

Testing and Quality Assurance:

During this stage, the app undergoes extensive testing to identify and resolve any issues or bugs. Our quality assurance team conducts various tests, including functional testing, compatibility testing, usability testing, and performance testing, to ensure that the app operates smoothly on different devices and meets the highest quality standards.

App Deployment and Launch:

After extensive testing and a quality assurance process, our experts aid in deploying the app to the desired app stores, such as Google Play Store and Apple App Store. We guarantee a seamless launch by handling all necessary app store guidelines and procedures.

Support and Maintenance:

Appinventiv offers comprehensive support and maintenance services to cater to all client needs. Our team is dedicated to resolving issues, implementing timely updates, and incorporating new features per the client’s specifications. We prioritize keeping the real estate app up-to-date, secure, and optimized for seamless performance.

How to Monetize Your Real Estate App?

Now that you have decided to go ahead and create a real estate app like Property Finder for your business, it is time to understand multiple monetization strategies you can use to get maximum returns on your investment.

Premium Listing

One real estate app monetization strategy is offering a premium listing service. Property sellers have the option to pay for featured listings, which will prominently showcase their profiles and listings at the top of search results. These paid listings will maintain their top position until the paid plan expires.

Third-Party Advertising

Another approach to monetizing the real estate app is by allowing third-party advertisements. You can offer paid advertising options to external businesses who wish to display their ads within the app.

Commission-Based Model

A classic method to generate revenue through property deals is by operating on a commission-based model. As an aggregator, you can earn a commission directly from the app for each successful property transaction facilitated through the app.

Subscription Plans

You can offer various subscription-based plans, including a free version, monthly, quarterly, and yearly subscription options. Users can choose a plan that suits their needs, granting them access to enhanced features and benefits within the real estate app.

How Can Appinventiv Help You Develop a Real Estate App Like Property Finder?

As revealed before, the cost to develop a real estate app like Property Finder varies from $45,000 to $200,000 (150k AED to 1100k AED). Considering the several factors we have discussed, a dedicated real estate app development firm can help you offer an estimated budget considering all your custom business requirements.

The UAE’s real estate market is experiencing significant growth, all thanks to the increasing urbanization and thriving economy. This presents great opportunities for businesses interested in tapping into this sector.

Appinventiv can be an ideal real estate app development company that can help you leverage the growing market share in the UAE. Our holistic approach to app development ensures that every aspect of the real estate app is carefully crafted. We enable businesses to provide immersive experiences to users by leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AR/VR, cloud, etc.

Get in touch with our team to develop a robust real estate app and tap into the world of digital innovation.

FAQs

Q. How much does the Property Finder real estate app development cost?

A. The overall real estate app development cost in Dubai, UAE varies from $40,000 to $300,000. There are several factors that further affect the cost of development including the location of the app development agency, the UI/UX design of the app, app’s platform, security compliances, etc. Get in touch with our experts to get clear cost estimates based on your custom business requirements.

Q. How long does it take to develop a real estate app like Property Finder?

A. The time frame for building a real estate app like Property Finder can vary depending on the app’s complexity and feature requirements. Generally, a highly complex app with an extensive set of features may take approximately 9 to 12 months to develop. On the other hand, a simpler app with minimal features can be developed within 3 to 6 months.

Q. What features should the best real estate app have?

A. The features of a highly robust real estate app includes:

• Property Listings
• Advanced Search Filters
• Property Details
• Interactive Maps and Neighborhood Insights
• Saved Searches and Notifications
• Contact Owners
• User Reviews and Ratings
• Mortgage Calculator
• Language and Currency Support

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director