Dubai Land Department (DLD), which oversees the emirate’s real estate market, has initiated the second phase of the Real Estate Tokenization Project, enabling secondary-market trading of roughly 7.8 million property tokens beginning February 20, according to a recent announcement.
The move transitions the program from its pilot stage into an operational framework designed to evaluate market efficiency, transaction integrity, and investor safeguards under regulatory oversight.
DLD developed the project alongside the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Dubai’s digital asset regulator, and other government bodies, including the Dubai Future Foundation and the Central Bank of the UAE.
The pilot phase, launched in March 2025 under the “REES Real Estate Innovation Initiative,” tested legal, technical, and regulatory frameworks for tokenizing property title deeds.
In May 2025, Prypco Mint facilitated the first tokenized property transaction denominated in UAE dirhams.
The department confirmed that future expansion will depend on performance assessments and coordination with regulators before additional trading platforms can participate.
Tokens in the program represent fractional stakes in registered properties and are denominated in dirhams rather than crypto assets, keeping transactions within the conventional financial system while leveraging distributed-ledger technology.
The initiative supports the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033, which seeks to increase real estate’s contribution to the emirate’s economic output by improving transparency, adopting digital tools, and attracting global capital.
It also aligns with the Dubai Urban Plan 2040, a framework prioritizing smart urban development and efficient land use to accommodate projected population growth.
DLD described the tokenization effort as a long-term strategic project intended to position the emirate as a testing ground for advanced property-market technologies.