The Dubai affiliate of one of the world's most recognised luxury real estate brands — built for buyers, sellers, and investors at the top end of the UAE market.
Gulf Sotheby's International Realty launched in the UAE in 2013 as the regional arm of the global Sotheby's International Realty network — a brand with centuries of heritage in luxury goods and, since 1976, in high-end residential real estate. Operating across Dubai with ambitions to expand throughout the GCC, the agency positioned itself at the premium end of the market: serving ultra-high-net-worth buyers, off-plan investors, and vendors of Dubai's most sought-after properties.
Despite the strength of the global Sotheby's brand, Gulf Sotheby's had struggled to translate that prestige into digital performance. Previous attempts at a web presence had failed to capture the trust, clarity, and conversion capability needed to compete in one of the world's most demanding luxury property markets — leaving qualified leads underserved and the brand underrepresented online.
End-to-end design lead — from brand repositioning and UX strategy through to property search, lead capture, and a fully responsive build.
Brand Repositioning
Diagnosed the identity and credibility gaps in the previous digital presence, then defined a repositioned visual and tonal direction — one worthy of the Sotheby's name and the premium Dubai market it served.
UX & Information Architecture
Structured the site around the journeys of buyers, renters, sellers, and investors — giving each audience a clear path to the properties and agents most relevant to them.
Property Search & Listings
Designed the property search, filtering, and listing detail experience — balancing the photography-led visual presentation expected of a luxury brand with the functional detail high-value buyers need to act with confidence.
Lead Generation & Sales Funnel
Built lead capture and sales-funnel mechanics into the site from the start — designing enquiry flows, agent contact journeys, and conversion touchpoints that turned qualified traffic into genuine opportunities.
The challenge
Having entered the UAE in 2013 with ambitions to expand across the GCC, Gulf Sotheby's had experienced previous failures with digital marketing.
The brand needed a fresh start that fixed core issues — brand identity, content delivery, lead capture, structure, consistency, and engagement.
My approach
I began with research into what had previously fallen short, then proposed a start-from-scratch approach.
Over a one-month design phase and two-month build, I addressed brand repositioning, content strategy, lead capture, and sales-funnel development — delivering a responsive experience for browsing luxury property on desktop and mobile.
One month of design, two months of build — a structured start-from-scratch approach to fixing what the previous site couldn't do.
Audit & competitive research
Researched what had previously failed — brand inconsistency, weak lead capture, poor content hierarchy, and low engagement — and benchmarked against competing luxury agencies to identify what the new site needed to do differently.
Strategy & site architecture
Defined the brand repositioning direction and content strategy, then mapped the site architecture around the core journeys — property search, agent profiles, market insights, and enquiry — with lead conversion woven throughout.
Visual identity & UI
Designed a premium, photography-first visual language that honoured the Sotheby's heritage — restrained, editorial, and confident — then applied it across the full suite of page templates in a one-month design sprint.
Build & performance benchmarking
Oversaw a two-month build phase delivering the full responsive site, then benchmarked performance within two months of launch — validating the new brand positioning and lead-capture mechanics against real traffic.
A complete luxury real estate platform — from homepage and brand positioning through to property search, agent profiles, and lead generation.
Homepage & brand positioning
Designed the homepage as the brand's flagship digital statement — establishing trust, conveying luxury, and directing buyers, sellers, and investors immediately into the journeys most relevant to them.
Property search & listing pages
Built out the full property discovery experience — search, filtering, map view, and listing detail pages that gave high-value buyers the visual richness and practical detail needed to make confident decisions about properties at any price point.
Agent profiles & team pages
Designed individual agent profile pages that humanised the brand and made personal contact easy — a critical conversion layer in luxury real estate where the relationship with the agent is often as important as the property itself.
Lead capture & enquiry flows
Embedded lead capture and enquiry touchpoints throughout the site — designed to feel premium and low-friction, converting browsing intent into agent contact without interrupting the luxury experience the brand needed to project.
Projects shown include live work, pitch deliverables, and design produced as part of embedded or collaborative engagements. Some work was completed as part of a wider team. Deliverables reflect the scope and direction at the time of engagement — the live experience may have since changed, launched in a different form, or not proceeded to production. All brand assets and trademarks shown remain the property of their respective owners and are displayed here for portfolio reference only.