No Limits: Union Square House Real Estate Broker's Gaurav Aidasani Has His Eyes Set On Transforming The Industry Armed with some savings, the team did extensive research to understand their client's needs, especially as the market was recovering from a recession.

Launched in 2010, Union Square House Real Estate Broker (USH) is dedicated to helping investors and residents buy a property in Dubai. Whether you're looking to invest in an apartment, villa, or a luxury listed property, the real estate advisory firm caters to a wide range of real estate needs to suit a customer's preferences and financial goals. The firm's services include property search support in buying and selling, property management through their partners, real estate investment advisory and property selling and marketing.

Leading at the helm is founder and Managing Director Gaurav Aidasani. Coming from a finance background, Aidasani never thought he would be in the real estate industry. "The real estate industry didn't interest me until I started noticing that if there is no limit in this industry, then why am I limiting myself?" he says. "It made me pay more attention, and I started to see [the opportunities] across and figured out whether I would be able to strive in this industry. I'm sure that's the riskiest decision I had ever made." And since taking the leap into entrepreneurship, Aidasani has learned the importance of being disciplined when pursuing one's goals. "I understood being mediocre is simply not in the vocabulary of successful people. It is critical to set high standards for yourself."

Starting with a small office (which, Aidasani says, was sometimes just in a Nissan Sunny vehicle), a few clients, and a three-person team, the firm launched whilst facing negative comments and suggestions amid the cusp of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. "People who had come for the inauguration said we were mad to open a real estate company, as companies were closing all around due to the economic crisis. A few comments that came across either said that we had no brains, or we just had too much money to spend a real estate company," recalls Aidasani.

Armed with some savings (which they had already invested in the expense of opening a new office), the team did extensive research to understand their client's needs, especially as the market was recovering from a recession then. "Striving to maintain a client's loyalty, remaining true to ourselves, and ensuring that they get the best advice from us enabled us to manage assets of over AED1 billion," he notes. "Our passion revolves around becoming successful by providing our clients the best ROI they could ever have. My goal is to help all our investors become rich while they sleep. At USH, we strive to offer more value than what our clients expect."

Over the last decade, according to Aidasani, USH has crossed AED10 billion in sales, with more than 1,000 satisfied clients and more than 70+ certified agents. Their hard work has received recognition too- the firm has claimed numerous awards consistently over the years from Dubai's renowned developers, such as Emaar, Dubai Holding, Meraas, Tilal Al Ghaf, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Azizi Developers, Dubai South, Dubai Properties, Deyaar, and Nshama. To this, Aidasani credits to the work of his team, as well as their collective relentless passion.

"Every agent we [have] reflects the company and us," he says. "We ensure that every one of our agents is honest, has integrity and works for the client and not himself." And these are the principles that are helping the company steer itself now in the midst of the global COVID-19 crisis. "We doubled our efforts, our marketing budgets, invested more in technology to help us do much better, and not to lose hope," he adds. At the end of the day, Aidasani believes that it is his firm's ability to understand client's needs that's going to keep it going. "We understand that every client has a dilemma to solve. They have earned money, and they would like to invest their hard-earned money into only safe products and [those which] matches their needs. We are here to impart our knowledge [and] show them the proper way around."

"TREP TALK: Gaurav Aidasani, founder and Managing Director, Union Square House Real Estate Broker

What makes your firm different other players in the market?

"Our main focus from day one since USH was started is to build a system where everyone who is connected and part of this platform will surely touch their goals and succeed in life. The only things we don't break: our promises and our client's trust! Also, we're the only real estate agency that sets the real estate off plan sector bar and continues to raise it. We didn't get here by accident. We have put in time to work on our goals with a focus of making progress every day, and that reflects in our team as well. We believe in creating an environment that gives our team the confidence to take major steps in their life. We have a retention ratio of our employees above 80%. And yeah, we have helped our employees to earn in millions!"

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