Dubai Land Department (DLD), a government agency for the real estate industry, said it started a Pilot Program for Real Estate that claimed to be the first real estate registration authority in the Middle East to use blockchain technology for ownership.

The initiative was developed with Digital Assets Watchdog Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (Vara) and Dubai Future Foundation (DFF). The project is in line with DUBAIS 2033 real estate strategy and broader efforts to strengthen its position as a global technology hub.

The department expected that tokenized real estate could make up 7% of the city’s total real estate transactions and reached 60 billion Dirhams ($ 16 billion) by 2033.

Dubai’s push in real estate tokenization reflects a growing tendency to integrate blockchain into traditional markets and place assets in the real world (RWA) as bonds, funds and credit on crypto rails.

The digital token versions of RWAs can be owned and transferred on blockchain, which lowers input barriers to investors and increases the market’s liquidity. Unlike crowdfunding that pools investor funds for buying property, tokenization provides a more structured ownership model. However, a McKinsey -Tokenization Report last year erected real estate as one of the classes that could face slower adoption of growth tookenization due to operational obstacles.

Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita, Director-General of DLD, said the initiative would “simplify and improve purchase, sales and investment processes” in local property, and the department is working with technology companies to refine the project before scaling it.