Legion Real Estate Success Story: Interview with Alexander Guliaiev, Founder

Alexander Guliaiev — founder and CEO of Legion Real Estate, a leading real estate agency in Bali. A property expert with extensive experience in Ukraine and Turkey, Alexander has become an innovator in developing the Bali real estate market. Under his leadership, the company has achieved significant success, becoming the largest agency on the island and partnering with top developers to deliver major projects.

Alexander, how did you come to create a real estate agency in Bali?

- I founded Legion Real Estate agency in October 2020 in Kiev, where we were selling countryside real estate. When the war began, I opened the direction in the Turkey market, where we sold to Ukrainian clients real estate in Alanya. At the end of 2022 I came to Bali for a vacation, but seeing the huge potential of the local real estate market, I decided to stay here to live and shifted our focus to Bali villas for sale and develop Legion Real Estate.

Why did Bali become your primary marketplace?

- Bali attracted me because of the higher yields compared to other markets, such as Dubai. Plus, there is almost no seasonality here. It is an ideal place for long-term investments with high growth potential. Plus, at the beginning of 2023, I couldn't find any real estate agencies specializing in Bali villas for sale. The agency market was essentially empty. It became obvious to me that this was a great opportunity for me to carve out a niche and become a market leader. And so it worked out that way. 
 

 What was your path to success in Bali?

I started by analyzing the market and quickly establishing contacts with developers. The openness of developers to cooperation surprised me. This was not the case in Turkey. Then I started to build a systematic marketing and sales department. A part of my team came to Bali, which had previously sold real estate in Turkey so we shifted our focus to Bali villas for sale. Plus, we already had a client base We made our first sales in March 2023, and started to reach more or less serious volumes in August. This allowed us to quickly take a leading position and become the largest agency on the island. In 2023 we sold $24.5 million worth of real estate, and in 2024 we have already sold $40 million worth of real estate, with 4 more months to go. 


How have you been able to reach these sales volumes?

We already had experience in the Alanya market and essentially needed to copy the model in Bali. Our deep understanding of the local market and fast execution allowed us to quickly build momentum. Significant growth began to happen when highly experienced management, sales and marketing professionals joined our team. Due to the fact that we provide a quality service, customers refer us repeatedly and also recommend us to their friends and acquaintances. This has given us a significant boost in our development in this market.

What were the main challenges you had to overcome?

One of the challenges was managing the business in a fast-growing environment. We realized that for further growth, we needed to implement a systematic approach and establish clear quality control. I started training, brought in experienced specialists, and that was a turning point. 


How do you continue to grow the business ?

We continue to grow through our openness to learning, self-analysis, identifying weak areas and improving them. We now employ over 52 professionals and that number is growing. In 2025 we plan to grow at least twice as much, and I am sure we will succeed. We have recently launched an international sales department. So now Bali villas for sale is really perspective direction. Now our clients include citizens of the USA, Europe, Australia and other countries. This opens up huge opportunities for us in growth and consolidation of our leading position in the market. 


What role does the team play in the success of Legion Real Estate?

 The success of Legion Real Estate, especially in the Bali villas for sale segment without the team, this success would not be possible. We put a lot of effort into training and development of our employees, we attract the best specialists. Regular feedback from the team allows us to maintain a high level of motivation and productivity. We hire many specialists based on recommendations from our current employees. Thus, we are able to quickly and efficiently find the best people with similar values and goals.


What inspires you to continue developing the agency?

Actually, we have just started. Our ambitions are very big. I am inspired by the people I work with, our partners, developers, clients. I understand that we are giving people the opportunity to invest in the highest yielding real estate market in the world. When you do something good and useful for people and get positive feedback, this is the main motivation and source of inspiration. 


In your opinion, what is the secret of a successful business?

- I am convinced that the secret to a successful business lies first and foremost in the love of what you do, and the willingness to give of yourself completely without abandon. When an owner treats his business with great love and dedication, there will always be people who will want to join this project. A great powerful energy will be created, which is already difficult to stop. The main task of a business founder is to see an opportunity, to enter the market at the right time, to gather a strong team united by common values and goals, and then you need to keep your focus, hear your customers, partners and employees, and constantly improve, controlling every aspect of your activity. Continuous performance improvement is bound to lead to success.

 What are your plans for the future?

- For the coming year, we will definitely focus only on the Bali real estate market, promoting the idea of investing in local real estate throughout the market. We still have a lot of growth potential here. As I said before, we are just starting to accelerate. In the near future we are planning to launch a number of exclusive joint projects with the top real estate developers on the island. Here we have the opportunity to participate in the creation of projects together with the development teams. Once we have a significant share of the Bali real estate market, we will decide which markets are worth developing and where to open branches. But at the moment, my focus and the team's focus is on Bali.