Azizi Developments: Our quality sets us apart from other developers

To us at Azizi Developments, delivering quality is not just a mere virtue, it is a core pillar to how we work and what we deliver. We instil the importance of quality in all levels of our organisation, our external stakeholders, such as contractors, suppliers, and brokerage partners, and all of our processes.

We see it as the key to customer happiness, positive word-of-mouth and repeat purchases – quality is what sells our properties, and that, in turn, is what drives our organisational growth.

Our founder and chairman, Mirwais Azizi, myself as the firm’s CEO, and the entire senior management team have become a lot more particular when it comes to our quality standards.

We have grown to realise that quality is what can set us apart from other developers – it is what makes our products surpass other offerings in the market. This competitive advantage, we now understand, is what creates customer satisfaction and in turn, generates sales.

We take concrete steps to ensure quality throughout the entire development cycle – purchasing land, designing and engineering, project management and project delivery. These include selecting only the most reliable contractors and suppliers with proven track records and sourcing construction materials carefully to ensure durability, the latest technology and designs, and adherence to agreed timelines and quality standards.

Moreover, our dedicated quality control and assurance department assesses the quality of work performed by contractors and provides corrective actions when and where required, ensuring that our partners perform as agreed and deliver on time. When the work performed is not up to our stringent, high expectations, it is redone – walls have been rebuilt several times, finishings have been remade, and so forth.

Additionally, beyond the usual quality control and assurance mechanisms that we have in place; including stringent, comprehensive guidelines and procedures, frequent and detailed Project Quality Plan (PQP) reviews, bi-weekly site visits and meetings, quality audits, quality management training, set quality control KPIs, and material and methodology inspections; we are implementing several new measures to ensure customer satisfaction.

I understand you’re focusing on bringing Western/European (mostly German) construction materials and standards to Dubai. Why and how? Can you provide a particular example of this?

We focus on sourcing renowned, world-class construction materials, as well as international expertise, to ensure quality.

So far, we have been scouting for more German engineers and architectural consulting firms to review our projects across Dubai, with new-hires and appointments to play key roles in ensuring that international quality standards are met and surpassed throughout our development processes in Dubai. As a result, we’ve received a noticeable increasing demand from European investors, with sales to nationals from the continent having surged by nearly 40 percent over the past two quarters of 2021.

This has encouraged us to instil a quality-first construction mindset here in the UAE, based on international – and mostly German – best practices, materials and innovations. When my team and I travel to other countries, we bring back knowledge, contacts and supplies that help us elevate our own quality standards, resulting in our projects meeting and even exceeding international standards.

The synergy created when various continents’ ways of working converge is truly remarkable – and with the UAE being such an outstandingly international nation, it is very fitting for it to also be the pinnacle of all countries’ development practices uniting, forming a better, more advanced real-estate landscape.

We currently already have our very own, highly knowledgeable, and experienced technical team in Frankfurt, Germany, that is on our payroll full-time, consisting of individual architects, engineers, and interior designers, as well as several consultants and architectural firms. This team advises our staff in Dubai through comprehensive reviews, guidance, the sourcing of materials from not only Germany, but also other countries such as Italy and France, the attendance of the latest expositions such as EXPO REAL in Munich, Germany, and more.

You have magnetised tens of thousands of foreign investors through the staging of roadshows in a number of countries across the world, so how has this galvanised the quality control process?

Correct. We have attracted substantial amounts of foreign investment to Dubai, with roadshows having taken place in emerging markets such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Kenya, Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, India, and Iraq, among others.

We have booked premium hotels for our shows, with the likes of Kempinski, Movenpick, Hilton, Radisson, Park Hyatt and Novotel having served as the ideal venues for us to exhibit our projects, as well as the many marvels of the awe-inspiring city of Dubai.

Our roadshows alone have generated sales of over AED220m since October 2020, representing a substantial inflow of foreign investment into Dubai’s thriving real-estate sector. We are privileged to be living in – and contributing to – the economy of this incredible country.

These roadshows are critical in bringing foreign property investors to Dubai, and they are particularly effective.

We’ve made it our mission to showcase not only our properties, but also the United Arab Emirates as a whole, to the world – with it being the best, most welcoming place to visit, live and work in, and a leader in business, tourism, and innovation.

It is both a privilege and an honour to proactively serve as a catalyst to the UAE’s vision and development – it fills me with great pride to know that we are a major contributing force to building this great city.

To cater to local and international investors’ rising demand for world-class properties in Dubai, we are upsizing substantially through the recruitment of over 210 staff. We’ve just hired over 125 sales staff, including property consultants, sales directors, and regional sales directors to better tend to the growing number of enquiries we are receiving.

Our customer service department has also grown by over 30 customer service representatives, allowing us to cater to the wants and needs of our clients better, while manpower in our marketing department has also been increased by over 12 new joiners. Another 43 have been hired across Azizi’s other teams.

With demand from European investors being on the rise, and our enquiries and sales volumes generally surging, we are making it a priority to hire experts across our various departments to keep up, and to not just uphold, but continuously improve on the quality of our products and services.

The Covid-19 pandemic must have presented you with many challenges, including perhaps supply chain difficulties and the pressing need to meet your target of delivering 100 projects between 2020 and 2023. Can you outline these and explain how you achieve quality and not just speed and quantity?

Throughout the years, the UAE has set a great example for the world on how a successful country can build a resilient model to weather any implications that can create a negative impact on an economy. We have seen a swift, outstanding enactment of policy from both federal and local government authorities in an attempt to support businesses and residents during the outbreak of the pandemic.

The emirates took several impactful steps to navigate through the challenges on the road to economic resurgence and to protect the gains of the industry and the interests of all stakeholders, including developers, brokers, and buyers.

The Dubai government has historically been extremely active in working with all sectors, including real estate, to successfully build confidence, empower businesses and foster growth.

In December 2020, our sales increased by over 60 percent compared to November 2020. December sales made up over 22.5 percent of the total sales in 2020, with Riviera’s share being at almost 70 percent, Al Furjan contributing approximately 20 percent, Mina on Palm Jumeirah over 5 percent, and Creek Views I and II in Dubai Healthcare City adding another 5 percent.

We have awarded more than 30 new contracts as of now in 2021 alone. Just to name a few: Studio N was brought in to provide façade lighting for Creek Views I; Light concept was signed on to beautify multiple projects; Witteveen+Bos were signed on for Mina; Ghuzlan Wood Works was appointed for Riviera along with Al Meera Kitchens; Multiscale Aluminium & Metal industries were hired; Stromek Emirates was signed; and Rocks & Logs Stone were also amongst the others to be brought on board.

Despite the global situation, we continued to develop our projects at an accelerated pace and proactively serve as a catalyst to the UAE’s vision and development, which is both a privilege and an honour that guides our every step.

We did not face any major supply-chain issues, as we procured our products well before the pandemic had an effect, and also sourced many high-quality products locally, such as from RAK Ceramics.

How has your unstinting commitment to quality been reflected in customer satisfaction and how do you measure this? What about the resultant sales? How are they going this year?

We conduct regular customer satisfaction surveys through VCM, our dedicated community management provider, to gauge customer happiness and learn more about our residents’ wants and needs.

The survey touches on important topics such as building quality; promptness and thoroughness of care and assistance; community comfort and cleanliness; web portal and app convenience; clarity of communications; as well as staff friendliness, courtesy, and knowledge.

The study revealed a high level of customer happiness, with 88 percent of the 1,052 respondents having expressed their overall satisfaction.

When asked what contributed most to their contentment, factors that Azizi community residents mentioned included not only “quick turnaround time”, “friendly staff” and “knowledgeable service providers”, but also “well-thought-out layouts” and “perfect finishing”.

Sales are another way of measuring the business impact of higher quality. This year, sales have been growing remarkably – in Q1 2021, we saw an approximate 35 percent increase compared to the previous quarter, and another roughly 38 percent surge in the second quarter. In March 2021, our unit sales had already reached their pre-pandemic levels.

You recently announced the 80 percent completion of Berton, hailing it as ‘an exceptionally well-connected residential development in the heart of Dubai’s emerging growth corridor, Al Furjan’. Can you provide more details about this and other key projects you have in the pipeline?

We couldn’t be happier about Berton’s swift completion, with it now being more than 80 percent complete. It exemplifies our philosophy in urbanism by serving as an unrivalled gateway to a well-connected, distinctive lifestyle that prioritises ease, human comfort, and health.

We are now looking forward to handing over the keys to hundreds of delighted families who will call this property their home for generations to come.

The development brings together masterful craftsmanship and interior artistry with gracefully furnished homes that come with high-end parquet flooring, state-of-the-art decor, and generous space.

Berton offers customers the opportunity to live in one of the most up-and-coming locations in the emirate. Situated near Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, Sheikh Zayed Road, and the new Expo 2020 Route metro line, Berton is remarkably well-connected to the entirety of Dubai’s major points of interest.

We have approximately 100 ongoing projects that are to be delivered between 2020 and 2023, 10,000 units of which are being completed this year, and an additional 100-plus projects with over 35,000 units in planning, worth several billion US dollars, that are projected to be delivered between 2023 and 2025.

We are developing world-class properties in Dubai’s most sought-after locations, including MBR City, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Healthcare City, Al Furjan, Studio City, Sports City and Downtown Jebel Ali.

While we take great pride in all of these, the largest one is Riviera, our French Mediterranean-inspired waterfront lifestyle community in MBR City which, upon its completion, will comprise more than 16,000 homes overlooking not only the new lagoon walk, but also an extensive retail boulevard, as well as Les Jardins – a lush-green social space. Phase 1 is now 85 percent complete, phase 2 is 70 percent complete, and Phase 3 is already 40 percent done.