UAE real estate sector should embrace data analytics

The real estate development sector in the UAE has begun to use data analytics to plan projects so that they will give the highest return on investment when they proceed to market, a leading figure in the countrys real estate industry has said.Mubarik Hussain, director of IT for Bloom Holding, an Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer,told Big Project ME that developers are even using data analytics during the execution phase of projects to analyse the performance of projects, so that they complete within time and on budget.There are valuable hidden insights that can maximise the value of developments that are traditionally not available through mainstream analysis, as well as getting insights into areas of developments that are overrunning on cost, and thus being able to value engineer and maximise the profitability of a development,he explained during an email interview.To extract these insights requires expertise across industries and skillsets from technology, construction, development. Having people with the right combination of technological and business skills is a challenge,Hussain warned, adding that only a fraction of the data that is generated and available is currently being analysed and that there is a large amount of potential to expand on this.