WE DON'T SELL SQUARE METERS — WE MANAGE THEIR YIELD
INTERVIEW: ALSU BARQUIN · PHOTO: OLEG TIMOFEEV · STYLE: NEW MILLENNIUM CONCEPT STORE
This autumn Aldar is bringing new projects to market in Abu Dhabi, while Coldwell Banker Uzbekistan is preparing a road show in Tashkent. Andrey Melkumyan on why Class A begins not with the building but with strategy and management.
HILL: You arrived in 2023. What did you see in the market at that time?
A. M.: I did not come here on my own. Behind me stands the private fund IOI Capital, which carried out its own review — of me and of the market — and approved real estate in Uzbekistan as an investment mandate. There were no truly international companies in this field in the country. We did the research and chose it as a genuinely promising market: it opened up only in 2022, and the potential was enormous. Then came a year of negotiations, two months of due diligence on Coldwell Banker's side, and in May 2025, we became the official representatives of Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial and Global Luxury. The brand turns 120 this year.
HILL: What makes you fundamentally different from a broker? Your main case is Modera Towers.
A. M.: A broker sells a deal — we manage yield. We have nine levels of management — from positioning the asset to creating added value. We were invited into Modera Towers on a recommendation; we had no marketing at all back then. When we came in in September, occupancy was around 20% — part of a single floor. Today it is more than 75%; the tenants include a number of the largest local and international companies.
This is the result of a change in the concept — more efficient layouts, multifunctional spaces, management of every square meter. Plus BOMA, the international standard for measuring rentable areas; this is the first business centre in the country where it has been put to work. It makes the property transparent to everyone at once — to the tenant, the owner, and the future investor. At first, I was told: don't bother, the market has never seen this, let's do it the usual way. We did it anyway, and now, following our example, several more business centres have moved to this approach.
Second — digitalization. Here is how it used to be: a tenant told someone in the corridor that a light bulb wasn't working, a minute later, someone else mentioned a reconciliation statement — and the first one was forgotten. If you receive a hundred requests, you are bound to miss some of them. Now the owner has their own dashboard, the tenant has theirs, there is a helpdesk with an SLA, and after every completed request, the tenant gives a rating — our average rating is 4.7-4.8 out of 5.
HILL: You say that strategy is underestimated in this market. What is the problem?
A. M.: Right now it is a tenant's market: there is more supply than demand. Even in Class A the volume will take another three years or so to be absorbed if nothing new is built. And new space is being built — I call this a quiet storm.
Here is the essence of it. We build a skyscraper in the centre and call it Class A. But to be Class A, it is not enough to meet the criteria — there are more than ten of them — you need the competence to manage a Class A property. It is not a question of money: an increased operating budget without established processes produces unjustified costs. Class A is not a cost item but a technology: standards, regulations, reporting, a team. Where it is absent, the property loses its Class before your eyes, and you will be leasing it at 35–40 dollars for a very long time. Conversely, an ordinary Class B building can be leased at the maximum market price and very quickly, literally through service.
Class A is not a cost item but a technology.
That is why we agree on the strategy with the owner at the outset and show the financial model. A man comes to me: “Andrey, I have leased everything at 30 dollars.” I ask: “Are maintenance and utilities included in that?” It turns out he is earning 20. And every month of vacancy is a loss: it is better to lease today for 2 dollars less to a good and needed company than to lease two months later for 2 dollars more.
HILL: In parallel you are opening up the UAE to Uzbekistanis. Why the Emirates and why Aldar?
A. M.: The Uzbek investor is always about money and high returns: over the past 5–6 years, on the local market, that meant x2, x3. But in Tashkent, there are no more flipping stories — the market is moving flat. This is exactly the moment to look at the Emirates rather than Europe, where yields have always been low.
Aldar is the largest developer in the UAE. More than half of its capital is held by state-linked entities. It is also actively developing in England and Egypt. The security of the transaction is critical for us: the company's projects are carried through to completion, and payments go through escrow accounts supervised by the emirate's regulator. With private developers, you can find cheaper units, but we are not prepared to take that risk. We represent Aldar in Uzbekistan directly, not through local brokers in Dubai.
HILL: What does entry look like for an investor?
A. M.: The entry threshold is low: this is an interest-free installment plan from the developer — for some investors, that is a matter of principle. To buy a villa for a million, you pay 5% at the start and then 5% every six months: the money is not frozen, and before construction is completed you pay only half. The rest comes afterwards.
The projects we offer in Uzbekistan are on Yas Island. Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, SeaWorld, Etihad Arena and the Formula 1 circuit already operate there; twenty minutes away is Saadiyat, with the Louvre Abu Dhabi. And Disney Abu Dhabi is being built there as well: Disney's seventh resort in the world, the first in the Middle East and the company's first new resort since 2016. According to Disney, it will become the most technologically advanced and interactive one in their portfolio.
HILL: What is the yield?
A. M.: Almost all Aldar projects launched on these islands a year or two ago have grown 3 times over*. Here is an example: the property cost about 2 million, at a certain stage the client had put in around 700 thousand, and a year and a half later the property was valued at 3–3.5 million.
But such dynamics do not always hold, and we do not sell a promise of guaranteed returns: our work is analysis, the choice of a liquid project and the structure of the deal. In June, Aldar sold hundreds of units worth more than 100 million dollars in two days. The problem is not selling but buying: that is why we have arranged a pre-sale — a day or two before sales open, and we will have individual units reserved.
The problem is not selling but buying.
HILL: What's next?
A. M.: The immediate task is to find, within a year, several strong partners: local companies that will become part of a global brand. Not just to agree on terms, but to hand over all the competencies and technologies and implement them.
We are also preparing two new directions. The first is wellcore: a space inside a business centre that works for the tenant's health and productivity. Our colleagues at Coldwell Banker have already implemented this in the Emirates, Finland, the Netherlands and Thailand, and in Australia entire districts are being built for this format; it is the fastest-growing segment of global real estate: the market reached 876 billion dollars at the end of 2025 and is growing by about 24% a year, and the Middle East is the fastest region, at around 30% a year. The second is facility management using robots that run on a system based on artificial intelligence. For now, the owners say: “I will lease it out without that anyway.” But this is not a theory, it is the reality of our time.
HILL: What is absolute for you personally?
A. M.: One's word. Sooner or later, a person will have to back up their words. The financial model I show at the outset and the report a year later must match; everything else is details. In negotiations, I try to speak more realistically than optimistically — sometimes perhaps to my own disadvantage: I may not close the deal, but afterwards I will not have to blush in front of the owner. And if you take away the titles and the figures, I would like to be remembered as a person you can do business with.
HILL: In one sentence — what do you want to convey to the market?
A. M.: We do not sell square meters — we manage their yield. For virtually any owner, from Class C to Class A, we are ready to squeeze the maximum value out of the property, regardless of whether they hand it over to us or manage it themselves. We are in the same boat, bringing income and benefit to each other.
NUMBERS BLOCK ON THE SPREAD
20% → 75%+ MODERA TOWERS OCCUPANCY, SEPTEMBER 2025 → AUGUST 2026
$2M → $3–3.5M * CLIENT CASE: GROWTH IN THE VALUE OF A PROPERTY OVER ~1.5 YEARS (+50–75%)
+140–215% * ROI ON THE CAPITAL CONTRIBUTED IN THIS CASE: $0.7M CONTRIBUTED UNDER THE INSTALLMENT SCHEDULE
120 YEARS AGE OF THE COLDWELL BANKER BRAND
5% FIRST PAYMENT UNDER THE INSTALLMENT PLAN IN ALDAR PROJECTS
×3 * GROWTH IN THE VALUE OF ALDAR PROJECTS ON THE ABU DHABI ISLANDS OVER 1–2 YEARS
* Sources: Aldar Properties disclosures and market valuations for 2024–2025 projects. The ROI calculation is stated against the amount contributed and does not take into account the remaining payments under the schedule, fees, and taxes; actual returns are determined at the moment of sale. Historical price dynamics are not a forecast and do not guarantee future returns. This material is not an investment recommendation or a public offer.
