Knight Frank appoints Louis Harding as Head of Residential, UAE
With 24 years of experience across London and Dubai, Louis Harding joins Knight Frank to lead the growth of its UAE residential business, with an immediate focus on sales, leasing and building the team across the secondary and off-plan markets.
29 September 2026
Knight Frank has appointed Louis Harding as Partner, Head of Residential, UAE, as the firm enters the next phase of growth for its residential business across the Emirates.
In his role, Harding is responsible for expanding Knight Frank’s UAE residential business, with an immediate focus on scaling sales and leasing capabilities across the secondary and off-plan markets, broadening the team and developing new opportunities for clients. The strategy also includes the selective development of an exclusive projects offering, alongside longer-term ambitions to expand the residential platform beyond Dubai.
24 years across London and Dubai
Bringing 24 years of experience across the London and Dubai property markets, Harding has held senior leadership positions at some of the industry’s most established residential businesses.
He spent nearly 15 years at Foxtons, rising through the business to become Area Director with responsibility for its largest division, before joining Strutt & Parker as Head of London Residential Agency, where he worked extensively across London’s prime and super-prime residential markets.
Most recently, Harding served as Chief Executive Officer of Betterhomes, one of the UAE’s most established real estate businesses. During his tenure, the company expanded into new business lines including Development Sales & Consultancy, Corporate and Relocation Services and Build to Lease developments. He also oversaw a full rebrand of the business, introduced a new training platform and secured an affiliation with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.
Why Knight Frank
Knight Frank has an exceptional combination of heritage, global reach and brand recognition, but also the agility and culture that comes from being a partnership. For me, that creates a significant opportunity in the UAE. I’ve joined because I see a real opportunity to bring the full strength of Knight Frank’s brand, network and expertise to more clients across the UAE.
Louis Harding, Partner - Head of UAE Residential
A changing UAE residential market
Harding joins Knight Frank with a clear mandate to build on the strength of its global brand and established regional platform. His vision is to grow a residential business that combines scale and specialist expertise with the long-term relationships, high standards of service and international connectivity increasingly sought by clients in the UAE.
“The UAE residential market is also evolving. It has historically been a very high-octane and transactional market, but I believe the next phase will increasingly reward professionalism, deep market knowledge, strong relationships and consistently high standards of service. Clients are thinking globally and taking a longer-term view of their real estate, and our industry needs to do the same.”
Building the residential business
“My focus is therefore not simply on growing the business, but on building a team and culture that can deliver against those expectations. Knight Frank already has the brand, international network and breadth of expertise. Our opportunity is to bring those strengths together with exceptional people on the ground and build a residential business that clients and colleagues trust for the long term.”
Knight Frank’s continued investment in residential forms part of its wider private client strategy in the region, as increasingly mobile global wealth drives demand for advice across multiple markets and asset classes.
Harding sees this ability to connect residential clients with expertise across the wider Knight Frank business as central to the growth strategy. High-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients increasingly hold real estate across multiple markets and asset classes, creating opportunities for the UAE residential team to work alongside Knight Frank’s commercial, investment and advisory businesses across the Middle East and its international network.
Expanding Knight Frank’s UAE residential platform
James Lewis, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at Knight Frank, said:
“We are excited to welcome Louis to the team. He brings extensive experience across both the key markets of London and Dubai. This combined with his proven track record of building high performing teams and his relentless focus on delivering for clients makes him an excellent fit for the firm. His appointment supports the ambition to expand our profile in the residential sector and align this service to our wider market leading proposition.”
The appointment marks the next phase of Knight Frank’s growth in its UAE residential business, with the ambition to build a stronger, broader platform that combines specialist local expertise with the reach of its global network and long-standing private client relationships.
