Umer Shauket, Founder and CEO of Cresco Real Estate

Why Cresco exists

Cresco was built in Dubai, in one of the most competitive property markets in the world. The place was earned deal by deal rather than announced.What changed the business was watching where the clients came from. Capital does not stay in one market any more. A family in Dubai wants a home in Los Angeles. An American investor wants yield in Dubai. A Gulf family wants London for the long term. Very few firms serve all sides of that movement properly, because each side needs different law, different tax and different paperwork.So Cresco stopped operating as a brokerage and started building like an institution: brokerage, advisory, market intelligence, capital and education under one standard across three markets.

How this firm makes decisions

Three principles run through everything on this site and they are the reason the numbers here look different from the numbers in most Dubai marketing.

• Registered prices, not asking prices. Cresco market research is computed from the Dubai Land Department transaction register, which records what actually changed hands. Portal asking prices are marketing and they are consistently higher than reality.
• The basis is always stated. When a figure moves depending on which property types or filters are included, both numbers get published rather than the flattering one.
• Findings get published even when they are inconvenient. Cresco sells off-plan property. Cresco also publishes the finding that off-plan traded at a premium per square foot over ready stock in the August register, not the discount buyers are usually promised. A client who only hears the comfortable half of the market is not being advised.

Recognition

Awards, honours and meetings with the institutions Cresco works alongside in the United Arab Emirates.

In the press

Articles about Umer Shauket and Cresco Real Estate in UAE and international media.

Published market research

Cresco publishes monthly analysis built on the Dubai Land Department register rather than portal listings. These are the current pieces.

• The Dubai market report for August 2026, covering the full month of registrations, the community level price movement and the off-plan premium finding.
• The Dubai off-plan project tracker, listing active projects with their escrow status, build percentage and the date the regulator last inspected them.
• What Dubai property actually costs in US dollars, the same August register converted for American buyers, on Cresco Global.
• Can Americans buy property in Dubai, on the law, the real costs and the United States tax rules that follow the buyer home.
• Dubai real estate tax for Americans, on what a US citizen actually owes on a Dubai property.

Credentials

Transaction figures on this page are Cresco’s own record of closed business. Market figures published elsewhere on this site are computed from the Dubai Land Department public transaction register and carry their own method notes.