How to create a real-estate application in Qatar: the complete guide

In Qatar, the search for a flat or a villa often starts on a phone: people filter, compare photos, place the neighbourhood on a map, then contact the agency. When the information is incomplete or out of date, trust disappears quickly, for the client as well as for the agent.

A real-estate application organises this meeting between those looking for a property and those offering one. It gives agencies a tool to publish, follow their enquiries and measure their results, and gives the platform operator the means to keep listings reliable. Here are the profiles, the features and the choices to settle before building it.

01Who a real-estate application is for

Four profiles use the product, with expectations that have little in common. Giving each its own screens and rights avoids mixing everything up.

• The buyer or tenant: they look for a property, compare, save favourites and expect a quick answer when they ask a question.
• The agency and its agents: they publish listings, answer enquiries, organise viewings and follow each prospect.
• The owner: depending on your model, they publish their property themselves or hand it to an agency, then follow the interest it attracts.
• The administrator: they approve accounts and listings, handle reports and run the platform.

02The essential features

1. 01
   Listings and filters. The visitor filters by property type, area, budget range, number of bedrooms, and furnished or not. The filters follow the way people really search.
2. 02
   Map. Properties appear on a map, with useful landmarks in the neighbourhood, and the visitor can search directly within an area.
3. 03
   Photos and video. A quality gallery and a video of the property: this is often what triggers the first contact.
4. 04
   Favourites and alerts. The visitor saves properties and searches, and gets an alert when a matching listing appears or a price changes.
5. 05
   Contact. Written request, call or direct message: each contact is recorded and linked to the listing and the agent.
6. 06
   Viewing booking. The visitor picks a slot offered by the agent, who confirms, and reminders limit missed appointments. The logic is close to the one in the guide how to create a travel booking app.
7. 07
   Arabic and English. The whole app exists in both languages, with a careful right-to-left layout and listings written in each one.
8. 08
   Sharing and comparison. The visitor sends a listing to their family by message and compares several properties side by side.

03The agency space

For agencies, the app is first a working tool. Their space, usable on a computer as well as on a phone, brings together:

• creating and updating listings, with photos, video and copy in both languages;
• assigning listings and enquiries to agents;
• following each enquiry, from the first message to the viewing, then to the deal;
• each agent’s viewing calendar;
• statistics: views, contacts and viewings per listing and per agent.

Codex builds this kind of dashboard for other trades, such as AZ fulfillment, which brings orders, stock and statistics together in one place.

04Moderation and listing quality

A fake, duplicated or already rented listing wastes everyone’s time and damages the platform’s reputation. Moderation is therefore part of the product from the first version.

• approval of agency accounts before their first listing;
• listing checks: required fields, clear photos, consistency between the text and the price;
• duplicate detection;
• expiry or a confirmation request for old listings;
• reporting by users, with handling tracked in the back office.

05Local rules to check

Real estate is a regulated sector, and the rules change. This guide states none of them: they are checked with your partners and a legal adviser before launch. The questions to ask:

• the conditions to operate as an agency or as an agent, and what the platform must verify;
• the information a listing must contain, or must not contain;
• the rules that apply when an owner publishes their own property;
• the protection of visitors’ personal data and where it is hosted.

06Mobile app, website or both?

Visitors mostly search on their phones, but many discover a listing through a search engine. A website with well-indexed listing pages therefore often complements the app, and agencies tend to use their space on a computer.

On the technical side, Flutter or React Native serve Android and iOS from a single codebase; the criteria for this choice are explained in native or cross-platform app.

07A useful first version, then improvements

Reliable listings and an effective search beat a catalogue of features. To start, the first version is usually limited to:

• listings with filters, map and gallery, in Arabic and English;
• contact and viewing booking;
• the agency space to publish and follow enquiries;
• the moderation back office.

Then, based on usage: advanced alerts, detailed statistics, featured listings for agencies, or related services such as rental management.

08Mistakes to avoid

• launching with too few listings, or with unchecked listings;
• treating Arabic as a last-minute translation;
• neglecting the agency space: without active agents, enquiries go unanswered;
• leaving properties online after they are rented or sold;
• publishing the app from a contractor’s store account instead of your own.

09What changes the budget

There is no list price for this kind of product: everything depends on the scope. The factors that weigh most:

• the number of profiles: visitor, agency, owner, administrator;
• how rich the search is: filters, map, alerts;
• video and the volume of media to store;
• the level of moderation and statistics expected;
• the target platforms: Android, iOS, website.

The detailed quote follows the scoping workshop. Coming with a project brief, even a short one, makes the discussion more precise.

10The steps with Codex

1. 01
   Discovery. A workshop to understand your model, your partner agencies and your publishing rules. The scope, the schedule and the detailed quote follow from it.
2. 02
   Design. The visitor journey, the agency space and the back office, in Arabic and English. No code is written before you approve the screens.
3. 03
   Development. Short sprints, each closed by a demo, with tests on search, the map and the right-to-left layout.
4. 04
   Launch and support. Release on the stores under your name, onboarding for agencies and your teams, then maintenance and new features.

Read next: apps to create in Qatar and the Codex mobile development service.

11Building it with Codex

Codex is a software studio founded in Algiers in 2014. More than 15 engineers and designers build products in French, Arabic and English, and the team has built more than 20 products in-house. The source code, the accounts and the data stay in your name. See the published projects and the certificates of completion.

The Doha office is at Building No. 157, Street No. 301, Zone 69, PO Box 8388. Algiers and Marseille stay the other published offices.