DE|KF’s FOLIO Platform Puts the Wide World of Luxury New Development at Agents’ Fingertips
by David Hay
April 2025
No matter how eloquently written, the listing description for a palatial penthouse or an opulent oceanside estate can never quite capture the magnificence of the property itself. You have to see it yourself.
Likewise, when I saw an actual demo of FOLIO after learning of it through its techspeak tagline, it was clear to me that “a first-of-its-kind proprietary digital asset management and distribution platform” does not do it justice.
What it is, in reality, is a smart, elegantly designed, highly interactive, and wonderfully efficient tool for global real estate agents to share availability, images, and other marketing collateral for high-end new development properties with their sophisticated clientele.
Developed and launched just over six years ago by Douglas Elliman Development Marketing (DEDM) and its London-based partner, Knight Frank, FOLIO not only collects these impressive new developments (currently around 200) from 58 countries around the world and makes them accessible on both mobile and laptop. It enables agents to send a deep dive into a property with exclusive access to all the development's collateral—images, brochures, availability lists, deposit structures, and more (with the agent’s contact info automatically embedded) at the touch of a button.
“Global reach is no longer optional—it’s essential—for marketing new developments,” said Susan de França, President and CEO of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. “With FOLIO, stakeholders gain instant access to crucial buyer information, enabling seamless property transactions across markets worldwide.”
Did I mention that it’s only available to Elliman and Knight Frank agents? (Hence, “proprietary.”)
The reach of this breakout tech tool now extends throughout Asia and the Middle East with plans to add properties from other continents as well. Basically, the whole world of new developments will be at the fingertips of FOLIO’s users. And in nine languages.
“We’re working to add more,” Vanessa Purdon, the platform’s manager at Knight Frank, notes proudly.
“Back in the old days, putting a project in front of a buyer in another country would often involve endless emails, shuffling PDFs with property details to their agent,” adds Oliver Banks, Partner, International Residential Development at Knight Frank. “It was a lot of work getting them up to speed and could take several days—several critical days. The client could easily lose interest. Now, it’s all here with one click.”
The FOLIO team, which spans London and New York, carefully chooses the bright, colorful cavalcade of property images from around the world that greets users.
“It’s quite heavily curated,” Purdon emphasizes. It is definitely alluring—an effective strategy that pays off handsomely in many other areas of aspirational marketing, from luxury goods to dating. International property is no exception.
“There are no hard and fast rules as to being placed on FOLIO,” Purdon adds. “But we make our decisions according to each market, which means most of what we feature ends up being sizable”—what she calls “our signature projects.”
Anyone with an Elliman or Knight Frank email address can sign into FOLIO. Agents can set up their profiles, send properties to prospects, and build client relationships. There are also monthly newsletters that suggest new properties to follow and provide updates on pricing and other information.
The FOLIO team understands that people can be slow to adopt new technologies, especially those who work in a business built on fostering human relationships. But it’s exactly this sort of connectivity that FOLIO has enabled—instantly and globally.
For agents who operate both in international markets and U.S. luxury markets that draw international buyers, the ability to connect with more than 20,000 users worldwide makes FOLIO a powerful tool indeed.
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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