The Lewis Allsopp story

Lewis Allsopp grew up in Coventry, in the English Midlands. School was never his stage. He was better with people than with textbooks, a practical learner who understood things by doing them, and the moment he left the classroom he started to fly.

He went straight from school into an estate agency, learning to sell houses at 16 and 17. It suited him perfectly: every day was a lesson in reading people, pricing property and closing deals. Within his first year he was the agency's top agent (The National, 2018).

Then Lewis watched a television programme about Dubai. It showed a city that was creating millionaires, where people were arriving with nothing and building remarkable lives. Lewis had always wanted a successful career, and here was the place to build one. In January 2006, aged 19, he left his friends and family in the UK and moved to Dubai with a clear vision: to become a really good real estate agent.

He started on commission only, spent around 18 months at Sherwoods, one of the established agencies of the time, and was then headhunted by a developer's sales arm (The National, 2018).

A couple of years later, his brother Carl moved to Dubai too. The brothers saw what the market was missing: a brokerage built on exceptional service standards. They founded Allsopp & Allsopp in 2008. On the day they collected the keys to their first office, the newspaper headlines announced a global recession.

It proved to be perfect timing. The big agencies of the day were carrying heavy overheads. Allsopp & Allsopp was starting lean, hungry and focused on the client. Lewis's view from that year has never changed: there is no such thing as a bad market, only a buyers' market or a sellers' market.

Allsopp & Allsopp started as a three-person business. Today the group has more than 500 people working across residential and commercial sales and lettings, off-plan, property management, mortgages, sales progression, holiday homes and a Private Office for high-value and off-market purchases. Entrepreneur Middle East calls it "one of Dubai's most prominent independent brokerages" (2026).

About AED 1 billion in property sold every month, by Lewis's own figure. Tens of billions of dirhams in property sold since 2008.

Lewis and Carl set out to write the blueprint for how a Dubai brokerage should look after its clients and its people: properly trained agents, honest pricing and service that people recommend. The results show up in the records:

• Dubai Land Department, April 2018: Award for Most Sales Transactions, for the highest share of sales of any Dubai broker in 2017. Source
• DLD/RERA, February 2020: number one for Most Sales, Most Buyers Registered and Most New Listings. Source
• Arabian Business, 2018: Best Real Estate Broker of the Year, UAE. Source
• Bayut and dubizzle: Agency of the Year, Dubai Enterprise (2022) and Enterprise (2023). 2022 / 2023

Coventry City is Lewis's home-town club, and he and Carl have followed the Sky Blues since 1992. Allsopp & Allsopp was the club's front-of-shirt sponsor from the 2014/15 season to 2017/18, and again in 2019/20. In those seasons Coventry City won the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley in 2017, won the League Two play-off final at Wembley in 2018 to return to League One, and were crowned League One champions in 2019/20.

Sources: Coventry Telegraph; Allsopp & Allsopp announcement; Coventry City FC, 2020

Carl leads the business day to day as CEO and Lewis is Chairman. Entrepreneur Middle East credits Lewis with driving A&A's growth in ultra-luxury property, including the Private Office that handles high-net-worth and off-market purchases (2026).

Arabian Business placed Lewis at number 40 in its Dubai 100 of 2024 and ranked him 73rd in 2025 (Arabian Business, 2025). Entrepreneur Middle East named him in The 100, its guide to the most influential people across the GCC (January 2026), and in its 100 Real Estate Agents (August 2026). The full dated list is on the Awards page.

In 2026 Lewis co-founded Seatsy with Tom Giles, a premium ticketing and hospitality marketplace for global sport and entertainment. Seatsy launched in April 2026, is headquartered at the Meydan Grandstand and is approved by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism as an official ticket seller.

1. There is no bad market, only a buyers' market or a sellers' market.
2. Hire well, train properly and hold people to account.
3. Tell clients the truth about price, even when it is not what they want to hear.
4. Nothing is handed to you. You work for it.