Q.   Let’s start by introducing yourself.

Well, I grew up in Sydney. I did my schooling and university there and went to England after my graduation to become a Chartered Accountant. I moved to the Middle East and lived there for 9 years. My work has taken me to many places. I am married and I have two teenagers and a toddler. They live in Sydney. They moved here about three years ago. From a personal perspective, I have always had an innate drive to grow & scale things quickly as well as to tame chaotic situations. Countries such as Bangladesh that are in emerging markets do tend to fuel that drive. Every day is a different day, even after all the planning, sometimes we end up working through different things. There is a beauty in things that pop up as surprises.

Q.   Tell us about your career journey and how the interest in real estate took place.

I finished my studies in England, worked in finance and then moved to Dubai in 2010. Soon after that, I started up a tech venture with friends and took on various different projects to quickly develop the business. We entered into a fast-paced world and worked day and night to achieve growth and had expanded this company to 14 countries. I got used to this lifestyle because I was constantly working. In 2016, I needed a change and I wanted to do something bigger and more impactful that would help make a difference. Having no idea about my next journey, I started looking at possibilities throughout the world and began discussions with the founders of EMPG where I very quickly saw the achievements to date though more importantly the vision they had for the Group and felt that this was the right next step for myself and I started in early 2017. Since then, we have grown to 16 countries with more than 6000 employees in the group.

Q.   Tell us about Bproperty and its current and ongoing facility that you are providing through its portal.

It is easy to discuss Bproperty from a holistic perspective. In 2016 when we first researched the opportunity in Bangladesh, the country did not have any real estate agencies, and real estate developers were highly fragmented with only a few having any large scale with regards to projects. Landowners were busy developing their own projects and digitization was far from the sector. Some limited portals existed only at that time. Bikroy and Lamudi were two of them. But they were struggling to have any impact within the real estate sector. So, when we decided to tackle this problem in Bangladesh, our first concern was how to bring services to Bangladesh in order to aid the consumers and stakeholders of the industry. The stakeholders are individual property owners, buyers, landlords, tenants or developers. We were trying to find out a way to deal with the challenges of connecting buyers and sellers. We wanted to
educate people about the complexity of the transaction and bring about a transparent and secure transaction for all parties. So that was one of the challenges that pushed us to our start. We built a portal that has every property that we have physically seen. Now, we have information about every single apartment that exists in major cities across the country. We have the country’s only unique database of every apartment. People can choose to do their research & property search through Bproperty but the added advantage is that they can speak to a Bproperty employee too, who can actually advice them on how to sell, buy, know about the right market price, help in protect transactions, check legal documents and finally in make sure that the property is handed over, same thing goes for the rental side as well. We are combining fluent communication with the process of assisting people to purchase or transact in a very secure manner. Now we are extending the services on the assets that we have. We are trying to look into our relationship with the banking sector. We also want to increase our focus on the legal industry, to improve the efficiency of documentation and transactions. Currently, we have a legal in-house team that assists in all transactions. Now, we are interested in the other industries that are attached to Bproperty. Recently, we have launched the PayRent product. This allows the tenants and landlords to process their transactions through a web portal. Payment and rent is processed through the app and gets deposited to the landlord. It helps in
securing the relationship in an efficient manner. They can notify through the app if there is an issue in the property. In this way, we can help facilitate emergencies. It also improves relationships between stakeholders to allow for more effective transactions. We also launched another product alongside PayRent which is Bproperty Interior. This product is aimed to deliver custom interior design solutions to both residential and commercial clients, and establish this still unrealized sector just as we’ve done for real estate in Bangladesh. We have also recently started a new project, which sees us foray into the financial services industry. Here, we’re partnering with IPDC Finance, one of Bangladesh’s leading NBFIs. Together, we will be providing customers with convenient real estate financing solutions that are much more accessible when compared to conventional methods.

Q.   Who are the people that you are targeting mostly as your potential consumer and how are the responses getting so far?

Bproperty’s target is anyone and everyone with real estate needs whether it’s a person looking for a property to sell or rent. We have teams in all of the major cities. There is a nominal fee for sellers and landlords only but it’s very minor. So, this was one of the values that Bproperty is providing. Personally, for me the enjoyment comes out of transactions. I don’t care if the property is sold for an exceptionally high price. I care about the people who are being helped through our services. And if we are being able to fulfill these, then this is what is going to give us the value for the long term.

Q.   Being one of the leaders in the real estate industry, how are you ensuring that Bproperty provides the best and the one stop solution for the client.

There are always limitations and we have to work with limitations. My personal philosophy in business is that you can’t be content with what you have achieved to date. It is about serving as many people as we can and continuing to improve on the services we provide. Every business has challenges and issues and we celebrate our successes in the moment but very quickly we go back to thinking that we could do better. I use the word “humility” a lot. The characteristics of this word is someone who is
not ready to accept that he is at the top of the mountain and there is always a room for improvement. That keeps me moving forward, looking to do good and better and that’s what we tried to achieve through Bproperty.

We still need to do more in all honesty. I don’t think for once that I have made it because I know the limitations as what we are as a business and the challenges that we need to overcome. The client that doesn’t get the service they deserve frustrates me and that’s what we need to improve on. Honestly, we are prepared to work hard. We have worked really hard since launch and that has put us in a position where we are essentially the largest real estate solution provider in Bangladesh however there is so much more that we need to do.

Q.   The real estate industry is changing rapidly due to technological advancements. Do you think the local Bangladeshis are adapting to it and accepting these changes?

Advancements are seen in research of properties. We do see other developers marketing their products through other online sources. Bproperty has played a big part in how these organizations are marketing themselves however I still think the real estate industry is very slow in adapting technology. The products we sell are apartments, which takes 3 to 4 years to build and prior to that, we have to take 1 to 2 years to look at the design and necessary approvals for the project. Changes are being seen in terms of research, content and communication, and during the lockdown, properties were being sold online without viewing through Bproperty with buyers taking virtual tours and video tours. On the flip side however, there is still a lot more to achieve in regards to the digitalization of the transaction and probably documentation.

Q.   In what other ways Bproperty is helping its partners and clients other than buying and selling properties.

We recently launched the PayRent product which allows for the landlords and tenants to connect to make secure payments without face to face interaction. This undoubtedly helps the people who have properties in Bangladesh but live abroad. It helps to manage their properties better and it also helps to aid in communication to manage the issues that have gone wrong with the property. We are just about to launch another product where we will make the evaluation of the properties to be a lot more effective for the banks and consumers. Like I’ve mentioned before, we’ve also started work on this new project. We are working with several other banks as well on how we can make the mortgages and loans
far more efficient for the consumers. We are also doing interior design, we have in-house architects to help with property designs, renovations or interior solutions. And to add to all that, we have always provided both our customers and clients with consultancy in all matters related to real estate So, anything around a home that you can think of.

Q.   Being involved in so many activities and roles, how do you keep up with a work-life balance?

In my experience, you go through seasons and you think this is the time you can invest in the kids and family and there are times that you solely focus on work. My family is based in Sydney as I’ve mentioned previously and since I’m always traveling for work, my family has been very understanding and accommodating, especially when I am away for months. So, when I am away, I could be away for 6 or 7 months at a time, and I focus on work only – I am travelling to build companies and not build a social life and whilst it can be lonely at times, you realise the journey that you are on. I am very focused-minded in regards to what my personal objective is. I believe people need to make those choices in their life – If they want to be very driven in business, they will not have a chance as much to be active in their social life. It’s about making choices and dedicating yourself to those choices.

Q.   Share your experience as a CEO in Bangladesh. And how much are you enjoying your culture and people around you?

The people are great. If I look through our organization, the average age is around 30. I prefer to work with younger people and what I found is that the younger generation is more interested in opportunities. They are very energetic, and it motivates me to keep going. My job is to give opportunities to people to allow themselves to express. I create a vision for people to be able to express themselves and if they are willing to do that, then that’s when magic happens. So for me, it’s really about trying to find those people who are passionate about trying to achieve something and prepared to work hard and are also ready to give respect to other people. If we can do that, then I can work with these people all day long. Actually, the biggest challenge that I face in Bangladesh is in identifying that drive. There are people who want to achieve something great but there are others, who are rather different and are structured in their own ways. So, this can deter an organization where it is trying to
grow very fast and is trying to get teams to work together. To balance this, we need people who can work fast and can work on many things at one time but we also need structure, so the trick is how do we blend the two together? We can make a lot of mistakes, but have to try and work through them. I didn’t get the chance to be around the Bengali culture, because when I am in Bangladesh, I am mostly submerged in work. If I want to explore the city, I get picked up at 5 or 5 30 in the morning to avoid traffic. Basically, it’s just a way to do the things that I need to do, in a way that I want it to be.

Q.   Do you think there’s a difference between Bangladesh and other countries in terms of real estate acquisition or investment? If you do, please shed some light on them.

I don’t think there are any major differences but the processes are different. No one wants to lose money on real estate. It’s a big investment regarding the country it’s getting operated in. The processes might be different but the desire to own property is the same.