Arab MLS is leading the charge in transforming the real estate landscape across the Arab region. In strategic alignment with CoreLogic, Arab MLS has introduced the Matrix MLS platform to its expanding membership base. Matrix, renowned as the market-leading listing management platform, is helping propel Arab MLS’s growth with its multilingual, global real estate solution.
Matrix has been at the forefront of multilingual MLS systems, offering support for English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. The Centris Matrix System was launched in Montreal over 16 years ago, supporting both English and French, while the Omni Matrix System debuted in 2022 with capabilities in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Numerous US clients have also adopted these features to better serve their diverse memberships.
While English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish share common characteristics, such as being based on the Latin alphabet and read left to right, Arabic posed a unique challenge. Arabic is read from right to left and uses a 28-letter alphabet with specific requirements for legibility on screens.
A comprehensive project was swiftly executed to extend the Matrix platform to support Arabic, ensuring the user experience meets the expectations of Arabic speakers for an intuitive, modern web application. This involved a complete redesign of the UX, including the layout of reports, displays, and screens. Arabic speakers expect navigation elements, icons, and various features to be oriented and function differently compared to English speakers. These capabilities were successfully introduced in July in the Egypt MLS, powered by Arab MLS and CoreLogic. Arab MLS plans to launch in the UAE before year end.
Arab MLS founder and CEO, Ahmed Elbatrawy has articulated a sweeping vision and is rapidly bringing to market a suite of comprehensive real estate tools and analytics to build, “the largest real estate platform in the world, headquartered in Dubai”. He envisions a future where, “every individual can easily navigate the world of real estate, making informed decisions and achieving their aspirations of finding the perfect home.”
To support Arab MLS’s modern real estate Marketplace, membership management technology, single sign-on, and innovative pay-per-listing business model in Egypt and the UAE, standards promulgated by the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) were employed. Matrix APIs are based on data transport open standards, such as the RESO WebAPI and RETS. Both application programming interfaces (APIs) were utilized to connect Arab MLS’ association management software (AMS), integrate and update roster data, and ensure accurate listing data synchronization from Matrix to the Arab MLS Marketplace and ecosystem of tools and analytics.
RESO’s open data and transport standards drive efficiency throughout the real estate industry. By utilizing APIs based on these standards, Arab MLS achieved faster time-to-market and helped “future-proof” its operations as it continues to grow and onboard new partners and members.
Scott Little, VP of Client Success for CoreLogic’s Real Estate Solutions remarked, “It’s been an honor working with Ahmed to help bring his vision to life. His goals and drive for efficiency, transparency, and providing a great user experience align perfectly with those of CoreLogic.”
Representatives from Arab MLS and CoreLogic will be present at the 2nd annual International MLS Forum in Milan, Italy October 7th and 8th. If you plan to attend, please connect with us to learn more about this exciting chapter in our collaborative efforts to unlock global growth, reduce friction, and keep real estate professionals at the center of the transaction.