Dubai has taken its property-tokenisation experiment from pilot to marketplace. The Dubai Land Department (DLD) activated Phase 2 of its Real Estate Tokenisation Project on 20 February 2026, opening a regulated secondary market where investors can buy, sell and transfer fractional property stakes through the PRYPCO Mint platform. For the first time, a tokenised stake in a DLD-registered property can be traded, not just held to completion.
From pilot to live resale
The move follows roughly nine months of pilot data. DLD launched what it billed as the MENA region's first tokenised real-estate offering in May 2025, and the pilot reportedly drew investors from more than 50 nationalities and facilitated over AED 18.5 million in tokenised investment, with individual offerings selling out in under two minutes — one fully funded in 1 minute 58 seconds, according to Gulf News. Phase 2 adds the missing piece: liquidity. Instead of waiting for a building to complete or a sale to be arranged, holders can now exit on a live marketplace.
How the framework is structured
The tokens are not cryptocurrency. Each is linked directly to a DLD-registered title deed and denominated in UAE dirhams. Trading operates under licensing from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), in partnership with DLD and backed by the Dubai Future Foundation, and is built on Ctrl Alt's Web3 infrastructure. Access at launch is limited to UAE residents aged 18 and over holding a valid Emirates ID, with international investor access flagged as a future phase and no confirmed timeline. Entry points have been reported from as little as a few thousand dirhams per stake.
The off-plan investor angle
Tokenisation does not replace buying a whole off-plan unit — but it changes the accessibility and liquidity conversation around Dubai property:
- Lower entry, fractional exposure. Investors can gain exposure to Dubai real estate without funding an entire down payment, useful for testing a community or diversifying across assets.
- An emerging exit route. A working secondary market is the feature fractional ownership has always lacked; it may eventually make smaller-ticket Dubai property more tradeable.
- Not a Golden Visa substitute. Fractional token stakes do not currently meet the whole-property ownership thresholds for residency — buyers pursuing that route should still consider a qualifying off-plan purchase and read our Golden Visa guide.
DLD has publicly targeted tokenised assets reaching around 7% of Dubai's total real-estate market by 2033. For buyers who prefer direct ownership, our project listings, area guides and developer profiles remain the primary way to invest.
Bottom line
Phase 2 is a genuine milestone: Dubai now has a regulated, title-deed-backed marketplace for trading fractional property stakes. It is early, resident-only, and small in scale relative to the whole market — but it signals where DLD wants the sector's plumbing to go over the next decade.
Sources: Dubai Land Department; Gulf News – PRYPCO marketplace goes live; Metropolitan – Tokenisation Phase 2. Figures are as reported by these sources; access rules and timelines are subject to VARA/DLD updates.
