Dubai is making fast progress in solving the final big obstacle to enabling hundreds of millions of new investors from all over the world to buy shares in property, according to comments released today by Kashif Ansari, Co-Founder and Group CEO of global proptech group Juwai IQI.
“There are only a few hundred thousand millionaires who can afford the typical property in Dubai,” he said. “But we estimate at least 700 million can afford to buy shares in a property through Dubai Land’s Real Estate Tokenization Project with a minimum investment of AED1,000.
“By 2033, the Dubai Land Department (DLD) wants to have tokenized around 7% of the emirate’s property market, worth roughly AED60 billion.
“That incredibly numerous, global pool of investors is the target of Dubai’s world-leading tokenization, also called fractionalization, initiative.
In the first phase, which has been running since March 2025, Dubai Land and its industry partners proved the concept by selling tokenized shares in 10 properties. The apartments in that batch range from a AED1.1 million one-bedroom apartment in Sobha Creek Vistas Reserve to a AED2.7 million two-bedder in Park Ridge Tower C.
“The buyers came from more than 50 countries, and demand was so high that every single share in one of the properties sold in just 1 minute 58 seconds. For now, participation is limited to Dubai residents, but once the launch phases are complete it will open to global investors.”
Removing the Final Obstacle
Mr Ansari continued, “Now that Dubai has enabled people to buy shares of real estate via the blockchain, the next step is to enable them to sell them again. That is what is called a ‘secondary market.’ It is the second phase of the Real Estate Tokenization Project and launched in February.
“It’s still getting up to scale, but when it does, the liquidity it provides will transform tokenized shares into a viable, long-term asset class. It converts property from a market where people buy and sell infrequently, and where they have to pay relatively high transaction costs and entry prices, into the opposite.
“Rather than trading a property every few years, investors would be able to buy and sell real estate-backed tokens at just about any time, after an initial lock-in period.
“If Dubai can pull this off successfully, it will be the world’s first secondary market where the tokens being traded are tied directly to the government land registry, rather than to a company that owns the property.
“Dubai is moving fast to turn its tokenization project into a large and vital marketplace that gives even the world’s smallest investors access to the emirate’s innovative and appealing real estate market.”
