Dubai Property Deals Are Quietly Booming — Agora Advisory Founder Explains Why

Everyone expected Dubai’s property market to freeze up. It didn’t.

That’s the surprising story coming out of Agora Advisory, a Dubai-based real estate advisory firm whose founder, Alex Gorasov, says the weeks following the recent Middle East escalation actually brought more activity, not less. Particularly in the ready property segment, where sourcing requests picked up just as everyone braced for a slowdown.

“To be completely honest, I expected silence,” Gorasov said. “I thought we would see investors pause, sellers become defensive and transaction activity slow considerably. Instead, what we observed was a growing number of sourcing opportunities and an increase in requests from sophisticated investors looking for market intelligence and distressed opportunities.”

Here’s the thing: not everyone’s behaving the same way.

Gorasov founded Agora Advisory on a simple premise: investors deserve honest guidance without hidden agendas. He’s built his own portfolio across Moldova, Bali, Georgia and the UAE, and his firm now offers advisory work, educational programs, property sourcing and market guidance for people entering or expanding in the UAE.

Since the escalation, investor behavior has split sharply down the middle.

Smaller, retail investors? Mostly sitting on their hands, waiting for clearer signals before committing. The bigger players are doing the opposite.

“We’ve seen many retail investors move to the sidelines,” Gorasov explained. “However, many high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors are doing the exact opposite. They are requesting private sourcing mandates, monitoring specific buildings and communities, and asking for detailed intelligence reports so they can be prepared to act when opportunities emerge.”

Picture it: while one group waits for the dust to settle, another is quietly building a watchlist, ready to move the second the right building hits the right price.

Most of Agora Advisory’s recent mandates have centered on ready properties rather than off-plan projects, and Gorasov thinks that’s no accident. In uncertain times, experienced investors want something they can actually measure.

“Ready properties allow investors to analyse real rental performance, existing market conditions and immediate cash flow,” he said. “When uncertainty increases, many sophisticated investors prefer facts over projections.”

And then there’s pricing. Discounts are showing up across certain segments, some bigger than others.

“On average, we are currently sourcing opportunities approximately 7% to 10% below active market pricing,” said Gorasov. “In stronger situations, particularly where sellers are motivated or specific circumstances exist, the discounts can be significantly larger.” The firm’s best deal this year landed roughly 26% under the market listing price. That’s not a typo.

One thing that sets the firm apart: how it gets paid.

Most market participants earn commissions tied to specific deals. Agora Advisory doesn’t. It runs on a fixed-fee model instead.

“Our interests are aligned with the client,” Gorasov said. “We don’t benefit from selling a particular property. Our role is to help investors identify opportunities, negotiate effectively and make informed decisions based on data and long-term investment objectives.”

The timing lines up with another milestone too: Agora Advisory just launched a new website pulling all its advisory services, learning resources, and sourcing tools into one place.

“The website launch represents an important milestone for us,” Gorasov added. “For years, our focus was on helping investors through educational content, consultations and direct advisory work. The new platform simply brings everything together under one roof.”

So what happens next? Gorasov isn’t betting on calm.

“The market is behaving very differently than many expected,” he said. “While some investors are waiting, others are actively preparing. Historically, some of the best opportunities appear when sentiment becomes cautious, and we’re seeing signs of that again today.”

Worth remembering next time the headlines look scary.