How the portfolio is presented

The portfolio on this site holds several hundred projects by more than fifty developers. Almost none of them is MONTRÉAL's own, and the group has thought carefully about how to present work that belongs to others. The rules are few and they are applied to every record.

The first rule is that a partnership is written or it is not a partnership. The group holds written agreements with two companies whose material appears here under their own names: Emaar Properties, whose communities and launches are presented with Emaar's own photography, plans and films, and Dubai Sotheby's International Realty, whose projects and listings are presented with their photography and facts. Each is named on the Estates page with its mark, as the agreement allows, and nothing on the site implies an affiliation beyond what those agreements say.

The second rule is that every other developer is presented from the facts it publishes, and only the facts. A project page for a developer outside the partnerships carries the project's name, developer, community, home types, published prices and sizes, handover indication and design team, written in MONTRÉAL's own words and attributed to the developer's page with the date it was read. The developer's renderings, brochures, films and descriptive copy are not reproduced; the page opens instead on licensed photography of the community itself. Where a developer publishes no price, the page says so rather than guessing.

The third rule is that photography is used with permission or not at all. Every image in the media library carries its rights holder, its licence and the evidence of permission, and the public site shows nothing that fails that check. District photographs are licensed editorial work and are credited; developers' material appears only under the agreements above.

The fourth rule is that nothing is padded. Verified listings appear once an owner, developer or partner has confirmed the unit, its price and its photography; until then the site presents projects, not invented inventory. Counts on every page are live from the published catalogue. The group would rather show a smaller portfolio it can stand behind than a larger one it cannot, and it believes its clients, and the developers whose work it presents, prefer the same.