OmarKassim.com

Sorouh is one of Abu Dhabi’s ‘master’ real estate developers. One of their areas of focus is Reem Island which they are jointly developing with Tamouh and Reem Developers.

Last week, Sorouh decided that it was going to hold a pre-launch for one of it’s more unique looking projects - The Gate (who’s visuals have been floating around for a few years), located in Shams Abu Dhabi, which will make up 25% of Reem Island. On offer was one of the three residential towers, the fourth being a commercial building.

Sorouh decided to email and call it’s investors to announce that a pre-launch would take place at the International Property Show in Dubai. Their agents also indicated to investors who were interested in purchasing floors rather than units that it would be better to come directly to their sales center in Abu Dhabi in order to get priority access.

We arrived at 8 am on Sunday 17th February 2008. After being asked to fill out a few reservation forms we were informed that the pricing information and the selling itself would take place at 10 am. Not a good sign.

10 am turned to 11 am. I had a little outburst with the agent that had invited me. Politely of course.

11 am turned to 12 pm, and at 12:30 we finally decided to hit the closest McDonalds. At 1 pm one of our colleagues indicated that something was about to happen!

Sorouh decided to accept our reservation forms and accept cheques of AED 10,000 per unit booking fee.

When we inquired about the sales, we were told that at the moment they had decided to hold back selling and that the individuals who’s cheques they had taken would be called back once they were ready in order to reserve their units or floors.

Sorouh called me back on Monday 25th February that on Tuesday 26th February they would launch Sun Tower (a tower located nearby) and on Wednesday 27th February they would launch The Gate. Did I say launch, I meant re-launch, our original applications would be returned and our cheques refunded. They want to re-start the whole process again.

They called again on Tuesday 26th February to say that they had decided to cancel Wednesday’s launch. What?!

It is difficult to understand how Sorouh can expect their customers and investors to trust that they will plan, execute and deliver they calibre of project that they are proposing if they cannot even sell the thing straight in the first place.

Is the real estate sector in the UAE really that buoyant that developers expect customers to simply lap up any product regardless of the service they provide?

Not only has Sorouh messed up the sale process, they do not understand the customer segmentation. A pre-launch is meant to be a quiet affair, to provide access to your larger investors (or potentially larger investors) to your product before the rush. Some may think this is unfair, however it is prevalent in markets across they globe, across industries. It’s meant to happen on time, and with the intention to sell, rather than wait and let’s adjust the prices so that when we do decide to sell it we’ll make more profit.

The irony is that Sorouh is a publicly traded company. It makes you wonder if it’s shareholders realise that the management is running amok.

Both Emaar and Nakheel have done crazy things in the past, however they know how to sell and they know how to treat their customers. This was a fiasco of epic proportions.

Sorouh. No thank you.