Participants of the conference in Jeddah recently. (AN photo)

JEDDAH: The ongoing real estate boom in the Kingdom has opened up avenues for young Saudis to qualify and specialize as agents and brokers. Even some real estate owners were among the participants of a conference organized by a major international real estate agency, whose region-wide campaign ended over the weekend.

“How to contact potential real estate buyers, and how to present and close a real estate deal were uppermost in my mind, which the conference has addressed,” said Makkah-born Mohammed Abdullah Massairi, a 30 year-old broker-owner, who was among the nearly 40 participants at the Jeddah conference. Many Saudi women have evinced interest in being real estate agents or brokers, and Bab Rizq Jameel, part of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services Programs, has been assisting them in financing them for establishing such businesses.

“The conference is aimed at making its participants qualified brokers or agents of real estate,” Joe Awad, regional director Middle East of RE/MAX Arabia, who conducted the conference, told Arab News. “Several young people got trained and qualified for performing the agent’s role. With the real estate sector continuing to boom across Saudi Arabia, several Saudis are now being qualified and trained at sessions conducted at our offices.”

The conference was organized in Dubai and Lebanon, aside from Jeddah, by RE/MAX Arabia, the exclusive agent of RE/MAX International in the Middle East. Property owners, real estate office owners, bankers and potential owners as well as brokers and agents took part in the conference.

The conference discussed objectives of professional training and learning the art of real estate marketing, and how to benefit from building a structured real estate industry and owning a franchise of RE/MAX and in the Middle East. It also brought together real estate experts and developers to create a strong and professional network that supports mutual cooperation between them, Awad added.

Awad said RE/MAX aimed at enhancing activating cooperation among GCC countries to facilitate investment processes and detect investment opportunities through a wide real estate network that includes the biggest number of mediators in the GCC countries. The company has expanded its network to include several regions of the Kingdom, as well as Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, he said, adding that RE/MAX Arabia is the “largest real estate franchise network in the world and the Middle East.”

David and Gail Liniger in Denver, Colorado, USA, founded RE/MAX International in 1973.