EXCLUSIVE: Million Dollar Listing UAE Season 2 ‘in the works’, STARZPLAY boss reveals

Launched on streaming platform STARZPLAY on September 15, Million Dollar Listing UAE was the long running reality TV franchise’s first international version. The iconic real estate reality series franchise, known for its captivating insider look at high-end property deals, first launched on Bravo TV in the US in 2006. The show’s success has led it to launch several spin-offs across major US real estate powerhouses including Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

“The show broke all previous records of any movie or TV series in the first three days of launch. We’ve been bringing this service to the market for almost 10 years now – quite an extensive history – but this show did break all previous records,” Maaz Sheikh, CEO of STARZPLAY told Arabian Business.

The streaming service tracked the number of new subscribers who signed up just to watch the show as well as the season completion rate and how many watched the entire show. Million Dollar Listing UAE‘s success dwarfed landmarks set by past hits carried on the platform like Vikings.

Since the debut season shattered viewership records on every level, Sheikh revealed that the second season is already in the works.

“Given its success, we are definitely looking to develop season 2, those plans are already in the works. We know this format and this formula with real estate really works,” he said.

“The real estate sector is such a fabric in the UAE.”

The UAE property market, especially Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has seen a highly successful year, with no signs of slowing down any time soon. In Dubai specifically, the real estate market is expected to grow by 15 percent in 2024, according to AI-driven research by Realiste.

The success of the reality series could actually set the market up for further growth, and may lead to more real estate-themed reality shows in the UAE to rival Netflix’s Selling Sunset and Buying Beverly Hills.

More than a dozen seasons and two Emmy nominations later, the show continues to attract viewers from across the world. But the UAE version, will not only highlight high-end luxury properties, but “affordable” ones too, said Sheikh.

“Generally, a lot of the focus has been on luxurious homes and high-end properties, but one of the things we tried to do on the show was show more affordable family houses and apartments, as well as [properties] that are within reach for more people.”

“It’s still Million Dollar Listing, but in Dubai, you can go from million to hundreds of millions, so we tried to keep them just above 1 million as well to show the full range of real estate in Dubai,” he added.

The show is exclusively licensed to Image Nation Abu Dhabi from NBCUniversal Formats, a division of Universal International Studios, and sponsored by Abu Dhabi and Dubai developers Aldar and Innovate Living.

“I think one of the reasons it’s been very successful is that it’s a hyper localised concept. Our fans and audience, they’re used to seeing luxury apartments and penthouses in New York, Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills, but this was the first time they had the opportunity to see inside Abu Dhabi and Dubai homes, penthouses, and some of the luxury real estate in the market,” said Sheikh.

“The audience wanted to see their own environment, the cities they live in.”

With their cutthroat dealings negotiating seven-figure deals across Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s most exclusive listings and dramatic storylines that captivated global viewers, the cast has played a major role in grabbing consumer interest, he added.

Backed by a carefully curated blend of longtime power players and fresh faces from the Gulf country’s real estate market, Million Dollar Listing UAE catapulted brokers like Ben Bandari, who refers to himself as “the 20-billion-Dirham man”, Rami Wahood, Zay Brown, Nassira Sekkay, and Riad Gohar to fame.

“We were fortunate to find a very good mix of local talent and they each came with their own unique personality,” said Sheikh.