Harlow UAE — real estate website design for a Dubai brokerage

Harlow UAE is a RERA-licensed brokerage across all seven emirates, with international desks for buyers abroad. The edition is written in English, as the UAE market is, and speaks its property language: communities, off-plan versus ready, annual rents, DLD transfers and Ejari. It follows the UAE PDPL and anti-discrimination law.

Project facts

• Client: Harlow Real Estate LLC (fictional)
• Sector: Residential real estate brokerage
• Markets: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates, plus international desks
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Real estate website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 9 page templates shared with every Harlow edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Premium, international and community-led

Dubai buyers search by community and building, compare off-plan and ready stock, and pay rent annually. Many are international, so the markets page adds UK, Europe, GCC and India desks. The voice is premium and hospitable; imagery is chosen to be modest and family-friendly.

Designing for the UAE

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story — US edition: 27 US markets · UAE: All seven emirates, founded in Dubai
• Guide — US edition: West Village · UAE: Dubai Marina: Marina Walk, JBR beach, DMCC metro
• Prices — US edition: $5,450 / mo rent · UAE: AED 2,150 / sq ft; AED 210,000 a year
• Homes — US edition: Townhouse, co-op, condo · UAE: Penthouse, ready, off-plan, signature villa
• People — US edition: Agents · UAE: RERA-licensed brokers
• Legal — US edition: Fair Housing · UAE: UAE PDPL; anti-discrimination law; DLD and RERA notes
• Look — US edition: Ivory, bronze, Cormorant Garamond · UAE: Sand, night teal and champagne gold; Cormorant + Manrope

Brand adaptation

The same Harlow, with a local accent

Night teal carries the interface and champagne gold adds luxury to italics, with a lighter gold on dark panels. Cormorant brings grand display type; Manrope keeps the interface crisp. Corners stay sharp for a tailored feel, and the wordmark keeps Real Estate. Arabic typefaces (Noto Kufi Arabic, IBM Plex Sans Arabic) are already chosen for a future ar-AE edition.

Homepage and neighbourhood guide

Waterfront villas on Palm Jumeirah open the site; the search asks for a community, building or project. City cards cover Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, Al Ain and Fujairah. The Dubai Marina guide gives price per square foot, annual rent, transactions, time to DIFC and the DMCC metro station, with listings marked ready or off-plan.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, including AML and customer due diligence.
• Fair dealing statement under UAE law on combating discrimination.
• Footer with demo RERA ORN and trade licence numbers; prices note the 4% DLD transfer fee.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a property group with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 9 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 21 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board