Dubai's REES initiative and PropTech Hub: targets, entry routes, delivery

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Kooky

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A technology firm that wants to work in Dubai property meets three official names within the first hour of reading. There is REES, the Real Estate Evolution Space initiative of the Dubai Land Department. There is the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033, which gives the sector its long-range targets. And there is the Dubai PropTech Hub, set up inside the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The three were announced at different dates, by different bodies, with different numbers attached, and they are easy to mistake for one programme.

This guide separates them. It is written from eight official pages read on 10 October 2026: releases of the Dubai Land Department and of the Government of Dubai Media Office dated between May 2024 and October 2025, and one service page of the department. It sets out what each announcement commits to, which figures were given and for which year, what the pages say a firm has to do to take part, and what has been delivered with a date. The department's own everyday systems, its artificial intelligence services and the legal rules on property tokens are separate subjects and are left aside here, except where a release ties them to REES.

Targets for the Dubai PropTech Hub as stated in the Government of Dubai Media Office release of 3 July 2025.

Three announcements, three roles

The clearest way to read the programme is by date and by author.

REES came first. The Dubai Land Department announced it in a release dated 16 May 2024. It is an initiative of the department itself: a frame for partnerships, events and projects through which the land registry brings technology companies closer to its work.

The strategy came second. The Government of Dubai Media Office published its release on the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033 on 29 October 2024. The strategy is the policy document for the whole sector over ten years. It lists technology among its priorities and names REES as the initiative that carries that priority.

The hub came third. On 3 July 2025 the Media Office reported that the DIFC Innovation Hub and the Dubai Land Department had launched the Dubai PropTech Hub. It is a physical place with licensing and support programmes, and it is the only one of the three that came with numeric targets for technology firms.

What the department committed to when it launched REES

The department's release of 16 May 2024 describes a launch event, not a rulebook. According to the release, the event brought together more than 200 sector partners, officials and experts, with 25 specialised companies taking part: 11 as exhibitors and 14 represented by panellists. The sessions it lists covered brokerage solutions, energy software, financial technology, real estate management and coding technology. The venue is not named.

The release ties the initiative to the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 and states three aims. The first is to develop the real estate innovation environment together with partners. The second is to strengthen collaboration between the public and private sectors. The third concerns the department itself: to improve its own capacity to acquire technologies, with operational efficiency and user satisfaction as the stated benefits. That third aim is worth noticing, because it places the land registry in the position of a customer of technology as well as a promoter of it.

Four concrete commitments follow in the release.

1. Supporting legislation. The release speaks of "aiding legislation" as part of the infrastructure REES will build. It names no law or draft.
2. A funded accelerator. The department planned a real estate accelerator for PropTech start-ups, funded by the Dubai Future District Fund.
3. A business group. The release says the Dubai PropTech Group was launched in collaboration between the department and Dubai Chambers, as a business group for firms in the field.
4. Global reach. Local PropTech companies were to be made more competitive in global markets through the department's international partnerships.

Marwan bin Ghalita, speaking for the department, is quoted as saying: "The future of real estate is set for revolution and transformation." Majida Ali Rashid, chief executive of the department's Real Estate Development Sector, is reported as describing REES as the most significant initiative of its kind in the region.

The initiative's slogan appears in the address of the release as "REES: where AI meets IA". The text of the release does not explain the second pair of letters, and this guide does not guess at it.

The same release names six strategic partners: Dubai Future District Fund Investments, Mantiq Technologies Limited, Omnes Media, Al-Safar & Partners Legal Consultancy, Stryber Ventures MENA Limited and EKUIPLUS DWC.

The release does not set out a separate purpose for each. It gives one list of aims for the partnerships taken together: to attract real estate technology companies to Dubai, to finance those companies, to connect them with venture capital firms, and to share reports related to artificial intelligence. The release does not assign a role to any one of the six.

What the release does not contain matters as much for a firm reading it as a guide. It describes no phases, no selection criteria, no application form, no dedicated website and no address to write to. It says nothing about a sandbox, about sharing the department's data, about programming interfaces to its systems, or about licences. On 16 May 2024, REES was a statement of direction with partners attached.

How the 2033 strategy frames technology

Five months later the direction was written into policy. The Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033 was announced by Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita, by then named as Director General of the department, at a media gathering held at the Government of Dubai Media Office as part of its "Meet the CEO" series.

The release says the strategy rests on three foundations: more transparency through data insights, a resilient market structure, and a sector ecosystem focused on continuous innovation. It is aligned with the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, the Dubai Social Agenda 33 and the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, and it is to be carried out through six ten-year programmes:

• the Transparency and Global Marketing Program;
• the Data and Governance Program;
• the Flexible Urban Planning Program;
• the Real Estate Investment Funds Program;
• the Affordable Housing and Real Estate Sustainability Program;
• the Program to Enhance Emirati Competitiveness in the Real Estate Sector.

None of the six carries technology in its name. Technology appears instead as a priority that runs across them, and the release is specific about what it expects from it. Artificial intelligence is to drive data analysis, for better decisions and a clearer view of the market. Digital solutions are to cover the customer's whole path, from the search for a property through the purchase to its management. Digital platforms are to give investors real-time access to their portfolios. Technology is expected to save cost in construction and to make marketing more direct. The release also speaks of deploying artificial intelligence and centralising data.

REES is the one technology initiative the strategy names. The release sums it up in four parts: partnerships between the public and private sectors, the integration of artificial intelligence, regulatory frameworks and accelerators, and a stronger competitive position for PropTech companies within the Dubai Chambers network.

The strategy's targets, with the arithmetic

The strategy's headline figures are sector targets, not technology targets, but they are the measure against which the technology programme is justified. The release gives five.

Two of the five can be worked backwards. What follows is this guide's own arithmetic, given as worked examples and nothing more. If a doubling leads to about AED 73 billion, the starting contribution implied is about AED 36.5 billion (73 divided by 2). If a twentyfold rise leads to AED 20 billion, the starting portfolio value implied is AED 1 billion (20 divided by 20). Neither starting figure is printed in the releases, so both are this guide's deductions from the wording, not official baselines.

The releases do give the market's position at the time. In the first nine months of 2024, Dubai recorded more than 163,000 transactions worth more than AED 544 billion, with investments above AED 376 billion and speculation "not exceeding 20%". On those rounded floors, and again by this guide's arithmetic, the average transaction comes to about AED 3.3 million (544 billion divided by 163,000 gives 3.34 million), and investments equal about 69 per cent of the transaction value (376 divided by 544 gives 0.691).

A last worked example shows why the missing base matters. Assume, purely for illustration, that the 70 per cent growth were measured on the nine-month count: 163,000 multiplied by 1.7 gives 277,100 transactions for a like period. If the base were a full year, the result would be different. The releases do not say which base is meant.

The Dubai PropTech Hub in the DIFC: what was announced

The hub is where the programme acquired an address. According to the Media Office release of 3 July 2025, the DIFC Innovation Hub and the Dubai Land Department launched the Dubai PropTech Hub under the directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed. The release places it inside the DIFC Innovation Hub and calls it the first PropTech innovation hub in the region.

Three targets are stated, all for 2030: to support more than 200 PropTech start-ups and scale-ups, to generate more than 3,000 jobs, and to attract more than US$300 million in investment. The amount is given in United States dollars in the release, and it is left in that currency here.

The release lists what a firm inside the hub is offered:

• customised licensing options;
• purpose-built physical workspaces;
• a suite of support programmes meant to take an idea from concept to commercialisation;
• advanced incubators, and incubators for early-stage start-ups;
• hands-on venture building;
• joint pilots;
• thought leadership.

The model, as the release puts it, is to bring regulators, developers, technology companies, investors and service providers under one roof. Essa Kazim, Governor of the DIFC, is quoted as saying: "DIFC is proud to unveil the Dubai PropTech Hub." Omar Hamad BuShehab, named in the release as Director General of the Dubai Land Department, links it back to the earlier initiative: "This hub is a natural extension of the Real Estate Evolution Space Initiative."

One point is left open by the address. The release speaks of "customised licensing options" without describing them, stating a fee or saying which activities they cover. It does not say whether a hub licence changes anything in a firm's dealings with the Dubai Land Department.

The hub's numbers, worked through

The three targets can be set against one another. The following is this guide's own arithmetic, a worked example on the stated floors, assuming every target is met exactly and spread evenly, which no release claims.

Dividing 3,000 jobs by 200 firms gives 15 jobs for each firm. Dividing US$300 million by 200 firms gives US$1.5 million of investment for each firm. Dividing US$300 million by 3,000 jobs gives US$100,000 of investment for each job. The averages are arithmetic on the targets only. They say nothing about how the investment would in fact be distributed.

The release does not say from what date the count of 200 firms runs, whether firms already in the DIFC Innovation Hub count towards it, or how a job or an investment is attributed to the hub. Without those definitions a later progress figure cannot be checked against the target.

Founding partners and the first names attached

The hub opened with five founding partners. The release names four developers, Binghatti, Majid Al Futtaim, Sobha Realty and Union Properties, and one further company, Transguard. It says the founding partners are exploring smart building and security applications that use artificial intelligence, through pilots led by the DIFC Innovation Hub.

The joint pilots on the list of benefits and the founding partners are two halves of the same arrangement. The release does not say how a start-up is matched with a founding partner, or on what terms a pilot runs.

REES has one named entrant in the department's releases read for this guide. On 19 June 2024, 34 days after the launch, the department announced the inclusion of Stake in the initiative. The release describes it as a local company established in Dubai in 2021 that runs a digital platform for real estate investment. It names no type of agreement, no sharing of data and no connection to the department's systems. The one obligation it mentions is a class: as part of the partnership, the company was to hold a masterclass for Emiratis, titled "Invest for Tomorrow", on 3 July 2024. Marwan bin Ghalita appears in that release as Acting Director General.

How a firm reaches the department: the channels the pages describe

A firm looking for the entry procedure will find less than it expects, and what it finds sits on a page about one project.

None of the releases on REES, on the strategy or on the hub describes how to apply. The REES launch release gives no route in. The release on that entrant says a company was "included" without saying how. The hub release lists benefits and targets, and does not name a form, a fee, a set of criteria or a selection calendar.

The single procedure found is on the department's service page for real estate tokenisation, a project the page says was launched under REES with the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the Dubai Future Foundation and the Central Bank of the UAE. Among its seven stated objectives is to "attract global tech innovators", and its target audience has seven groups, PropTech and fintech start-ups among them. The start-ups are described as those working on tokenisation platforms, blockchain integration and smart contracts.

The page states no eligibility condition, no licence a firm must already hold, no documents, no fee and no processing time. It is, in short, an expression of interest and not an application with a decision at the end. Whether a firm must hold a licence from VARA or another regulator to act in the project is a matter for the rules of those regulators, which this page does not restate.

Delivered so far, by date

Set in order, the dated record on the official pages runs as follows.

The March 2025 release adds two forecasts: the department projected that the tokenisation market would reach AED 60 billion by 2033, a share it put at 7 per cent of Dubai's total real estate transactions. It also says the department held a workshop on tokenisation that brought PropTech companies together, and describes REES as "designed to attract diverse technology firms".

A further release, dated 11 October 2025, looked ahead to the GITEX Global exhibition held at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 13 to 17 October 2025. In it the department cited more than 19 years of digital innovation and said it would announce strategic partnerships with global artificial intelligence and PropTech companies and sign collaboration agreements. The release named none of them, and it mentioned neither REES nor the hub.

Against the launch commitments, the record is uneven. The business group with Dubai Chambers is reported as launched on the first day. The accelerator funded by the Dubai Future District Fund is announced as a plan in May 2024, and no later page read for this guide reports its opening, a cohort or a number of firms. The same holds for the supporting legislation. For the hub, 15 months separate the launch from the date of this guide, and none of the pages read gives a count of firms admitted, jobs created or investment raised.

A target for 2030 and a launch in 2025 leave five years in between, and the official pages do not yet publish a figure for any of them.

Where the pages differ and what they leave unsaid

Four small differences between the sources are worth knowing before quoting any of them.

• The date of the strategy. The department's copy of the release is dated 28 October 2024. The Media Office page is dated 29 October 2024.
• The name of the strategy. The 2024 releases call it the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033. The department's release of 11 October 2025 calls it the Dubai Real Estate Strategy 2033.
• The name behind REES. The launch release and the service page expand it as the Real Estate Evolution Space initiative. The release of 19 March 2025 calls it the Real Estate Innovation Initiative.
• The partners in tokenisation. The March 2025 release names VARA and the Dubai Future Foundation, working "through SandBox Real Estate". The service page names those two and adds the Central Bank of the UAE. Neither page explains what the sandbox is, who admits a firm to it or under what rules.

The titles of the department's head also change across the releases: Marwan bin Ghalita is Acting Director General in June 2024 and Director General in October 2024, and Omar Hamad BuShehab is Director General in July 2025.

The announcements are firm on direction and on three numbers. On the questions a founder would put first, the pages read are silent.

• Entry. No page gives criteria, a form or a timetable for joining REES or the hub. The one form found registers interest in a single project.
• Cost. No licence fee, programme fee or workspace price is stated for the hub.
• Data. No page describes the terms on which a firm obtains the department's data or links to its systems.
• Progress. No page reports how many firms the hub has taken in since 3 July 2025, or the state of the accelerator announced on 16 May 2024.
• Measurement. The hub's targets come without a starting date or a definition of what counts, and the strategy's targets without base figures.

Each of these may be answered in a document that was not among the pages read, and each can change when the Dubai Land Department, the Media Office or the DIFC publishes again. Until then, the dated releases above are the whole of the official record this guide can stand behind.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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