Success of 'Million Dollar Listing UAE' among Arab viewers thanks to rising real estate prices in Dubai (EXCLUSIVE)

"Million Dollar Listing UAE," the first adaptation outside the U.S. of Bravo Channel's popular luxury real estate reality franchise, has been a smash hit in the Middle East. The bilingual show, in which five brokers from the United Arab Emirates trade luxury real estate properties in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has broken all previous viewing records "among original and licensed shows" since its Sept. 15 launch on streaming service Starzplay Arabia, according to its CEO Maaz Sheikh.

The acting CEO of Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Ben Ross, who is the government studio that decided to license the show from NBCUniversal Formats following an appeal from veteran Dubai realtor Ben Bandari, said "it's an obvious decision." It was Bandari who originally tried to get the rights to remake the show. Image Nation then offered it to Starzplay.

Till recently, Bandari's fame was tied to real estate sales in excess of Dh20 billion ($5 billion). Now he stars on "Million Dollar Listing UAE" alongside brokers Zay Brown from the UK, the youngest broker on the show, Nassira Sekkai, who owns a yellow Ferrari and is known as "The Shark," Rami Wahood, who sells real estate in the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the always smiling Riad Gohar, co-founder of BlackOak Real Estate in Dubai, dubbed "Charming. "

The first episodes of "Million Dollar Listing UAE" also feature "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles" star Josh Altman and his brother Matt, creating a cultural bridge of sorts. Image Nation worked closely with American company World of Wonder, the producer of the original show, to produce the UAE version. "We got their comments, their recommendations, and we even brought in their post-production producer at the end of the shoot," Ross says.

What captured Starzplay's attention in deciding to bring this Emmy-nominated American show to the Islamic world is its hyper-localization, Sheikh says.

The Sheikh notes that 20 years ago, the UAE became the first country in the Gulf region to open up the possibility for foreigners to own real estate. Dubai is now the world's biggest premium real estate market thanks to a surge in new buyers, including from Russia, driving prices up 225% in the latest quarter after falling during the pandemic in the third quarter of 2020, according to consultancy Knight Frank. In contrast, the luxury housing market in the U.S. is already experiencing a downturn, with transactions recently down more than 24% in New York and Los Angeles, according to brokerage firm Redfin.

Therefore, as Sheikh notes, these days real estate is "more firmly embedded in the fabric of society and is a topic of discussion at the dinner table in this part of the world than anywhere else in the world. "

The relevance of the local real estate boom is also reflected in the geographic distribution of the current success of "Million Dollar Listing UAE" on Starzplay, which Sheikh says gets nearly 50% of its subscribers from the UAE alone, another 30% from Saudi Arabia, and the rest from the 17 other markets in the Middle East and North Africa where the service operates.

But Million Dollar Listing UAE now has even bigger ambitions. With Dubai "at the center of the world's attention," as Sheikh says, Image Nation and Starzplay are confident they will soon find international partners for the first non-U.S. version of "Million Dollar Listing".

In the meantime, auditions for the show's second season have already begun in Dubai.

Sincerely, Image Nation.