Czech broker Monika Kaličinská profits from UAE property amid slowdown

The founder of the boutique real estate agency Inanna, Monika Kaličinská, explains how the UAE property market has changed since the escalation of the US-Iran conflict, and how she is restructuring her business to retain investors — above all from Czechia and Slovakia.

According to the entrepreneur, demand for property in the Emirates has cooled noticeably: speculative buyers chasing quick profits are gradually leaving the market, taking with them the “unprofessional brokers” and unscrupulous developers. Experienced investors, however, are staying or coming back, says Kaličinská, who is following the situation from Abu Dhabi, where she had travelled for the presentation of a new project by the developer Aldar.

The project in question is a complex on Yas Island — 529 apartments starting at 9.5 million crowns. The developer is offering an unusually favourable payment plan: just 5% of the price on booking, another 10% in February, and then equal instalments every seven months until handover, when the remaining 45% falls due. Terms once unthinkable for the market are being introduced by developers right now, specifically to revive demand.

Kaličinská moved to the Emirates three years ago, and two years later founded her own agency, named after the ancient Egyptian queen Inanna. The name is symbolic: the company deliberately targets women investors, and its team is made up entirely of women — currently six brokers. The firm's financial and IT back office is provided through a partnership with the Czech holding company JFH Holding.

The sharp drop in demand forced the company to adjust its business model. “For the first two months we were still hitting our target of a hundred million crowns in sales a month. From March the figures fell noticeably, and we had to change direction and look for new markets,” the entrepreneur admits. Besides residential projects in Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, the company is now putting more effort into Class A office space, a segment Kaličinská herself has invested in, seeing it as promising given the limited supply of quality space.

According to Engel & Völkers, the number of transactions on Dubai's property market fell by almost 14% year on year in the first half of the year, while the value of transactions dropped by nearly 16%. Despite this, Kaličinská remains confident in the region's long-term prospects and has no plans to expand into Europe or other markets: in her view, it is only possible to advise investors well by knowing one specific market thoroughly.