Knight Frank And University College London Partner On First Dubai Residential Data Hackathon

Knight Frank, the leading global real estate consultancy firm has partnered with University College London (UCL) to hold a 48-hour dubai Residential Data Hackathon from 8-9th November at UCL's London campus.

Students from UCL's Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analytics (CASA) will have access to Knight Frank's Dubai residential transactional database of over 800,000 deals, dating back to 2002.

The strategic partnership with UCL is aimed at raising awareness of the depth of data available on Dubai's buoyant residential market, which is also the most transparent in the Middle East region, as well as an opportunity for UCL's students to showcase their geospatial skills using real data from one of the most dynamic residential markets in the world that is currently enjoying a significant post-Covid boom. 

Faisal Durrani, Partner – Head of Middle East Research, Knight Frank, explained: "Dubai is one of the world's most talked about property markets and our collaboration with UCL allows us to shine a light on the incredible post-Covid story playing out in the emirate's residential market. Almost 20 years since the market was first opened up to international investors, it has gone from strength to strength and has started to exhibit some strong signs of maturity, with the rapid rise of the $10 million homes market being one strong indicator".

"The incredible talent amongst UCL's geospatial students is going to expose some previously unseen market trends during the Data Hackathon and we're extremely excited at the prospect of showing the global investment community just how far Dubai's residential data has come, while also identifying new investment opportunities and trends".

Professor Adam Dennett, Head of Department and Professor Urban Analytics, in the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London, added: "While the world is becoming ever more quantified, data about all aspects of our human existence is becoming increasingly available and is beginning to offer opportunities in many different domains, not least residential property. In CASA, we train the next generation of urban spatial analysts in the skills required to turn data into practical solutions for our urban world and one of the domains of interest which frequently emerges is that of housing and residential property. Due to this we are excited to be partnering with Knight Frank to see if the expertise of our students and tutors can be adapted to the challenges of understanding the residential property environment in Dubai – one of the world's fastest growing real estate markets. This hackathon event will allow the collective creativity and initiative of our students to take centre stage and I know their enthusiasm for tackling real-world problems is high, so this is a fantastic opportunity. I know some exciting solutions will emerge after this two-day intensive event and I for one cannot wait to see the results"

The results of the Data Hackathon are due to be announced on 10th November and Knight Frank will be issuing prizes in various different categories to the standout student teams.