For the first time, Egypt sees, on October 20, Vestate Expo, the biggest virtual expo in the country hosting up to 50 developers and attracting over 2500 visitors across the MENA region, Invest-Gate reports.

Exhibitors present their products to visitors through an online platform, allowing them to communicate with companies’ representatives via live chat or emails. Vestate Expo is an ongoing hub for the buyers and sellers to meet, interact, and get updates on the most recent offers in the real estate market.

Emaar Misr, Memmar Al Morshedy, SODIC, Marakez, Dorra Group, Inertia, New Giza, Tabarak Development, and OUD are among the exhibitors. On its opening day, Vestate hosted a number of digital conferences where speakers give tips and tricks about the property market in Egypt especially in the time of COVID-19. Conferences will resume again on October 21 but the exhibition is ongoing.

Shady El Zayat, head of Commercial Sector at OUD, one of the participants highlights during his online session “The effect of the COVID-19 on the real estate industry in the Middle East”. He notes, “Marsa Alam will be the next hub for the Egyptian property market, as developers will promote the destination abroad,” he explains, “especially in the time of COVID-19 as a lot of people are searching for a safe spot to quarantine.”

He also adds that the Egyptian real estate sector is a safe assist, where people usually rely on in the time of crises so it is still keeping its progress. Furthermore, he believes that the high population in Egypt helps in developing the sector, hence, “this industry will be alive all the time,” he states.

On her part Shosha Abu El Kheir, founder of Shosha Kamal Design House, talks about the need for public art in new emerging communities, saying that public art has a tremendous effect on inhabitants’ behavior thus, “it is a very significant component during the design phase of the compounds or cities,” she notes.

She further clarifies that art has an impact on mental health and it also reduces the crimes ratio according to studies. “Additionally, it elevates the sense of belonging,” she says.

In a similar vein, Ahdab Badr, digital media consultant gives a speech about the “Human Effect of Social Media Advertising”. She confirms the evolution of the social media platforms to target audiences according to their gender, lifestyle, age, and backgrounds.

She also urged the different types of each platform for each user, explaining that Facebook, for instance, represents more feeds than Instagram, which focuses on the dream life. Hence, the real estate sector can use every platform to promote their products plus reaching audiences.

During Vestate Expo’s second-day online conference, Hassan Morshedy, CEO of Memaar El Morshedy, gives a speech under the title of How to Stand Out In A Clutter – Zahra Case Study, in which he elaborates on the techniques they have applied to the Zahra project. “ First we studied our competitor’s projects in New Alamein City, and we found out that all their schemes are villas with luxury features overlooking the beach; hence, we put another strategy targeting the middle -class income segment with housing units and not villas,” he explains. He further adds, “With this plan, we turned the idea of turning a summer home into a primary residence all year-round.”

Continually, Navjeet Chhina, CEO of Genius Ventures Inc, highlights during his session The Role of AR & VR in Aiding Sales. He notes “AR & VR allow real estate developers to showcase their products easier to the customers in the comfort of their homes, and tour the property around.” He also urges the significance of this technology in interacting with clients as the online showrooms give the customers a lot of options they never had before in the offline ones.

Amira El Borolossy, Director of Marketing, and Ahmed El Moursy, Director of Innovation at Mountain View, also give a presentation about the new normal in the real estate industry, discussing the new shapes of homes after the COVID-19 crisis. “The design of units have changed lately as people now are searching for spaces in their homes to work, practice, entrain, study. Hence, COVID-19 lesson for developers is how to utilize every space inside housing units,” they conclude.

Vestate Expo is an ongoing online platform for real estate developers to exhibit their projects and homebuyers to book their future units at the comfort of buyers’ home.