Dubai has made a bold move to revolutionise its real estate sector by integrating blockchain technology into its land registry system. The Dubai Land Department (DLD), under its Real Estate Evolution Space Initiative (REES), has launched the Middle East’s first government-backed tokenisation of property title deeds, selecting the XRP Ledger (XRPL) as its blockchain infrastructure.
The pilot initiative synchronises on-chain property tokens with Dubai’s traditional land records, forging a legally compliant bridge between blockchain and legacy systems. This transformation aims to streamline how real estate is bought, sold, and financed, while ensuring legal finality without the cumbersome paperwork typically involved in property conveyancing.
Why XRP Ledger Was Chosen
RippleX, the developer arm of Ripple, hailed the DLD’s decision as a milestone moment for both the real estate and blockchain sectors. XRPL’s core attributes—speed, scalability, and cost-efficiency—were instrumental in its selection. The ledger, operating since 2012, handles nearly two million transactions per day with finality in seconds and near-zero fees. These features make it ideally suited to power large-scale, fractional property ownership.
Ctrl Alt, the tokenisation specialist executing the rollout, has integrated its blockchain infrastructure directly with DLD’s databases. Each fractional token represents a registered economic interest in a physical property. Upon transfer, the change is immediately reflected in the DLD’s official registry. This level of interoperability is unprecedented, effectively removing the legal and administrative frictions that have long slowed property transactions.
Investment Gateway and Pilot Details
The tokenised property programme is now live through the PRYPCO Mint platform. During the pilot phase, only UAE-ID holders are eligible to participate, with a minimum subscription amount of AED 2,000 (approximately $545). Though all transactions are settled in the UAE dirham rather than cryptocurrencies, ownership is issued as bearer tokens on XRPL.
The initiative has set ambitious targets: cumulative issuance of fractional title tokens worth AED 60 billion ($16 billion) by 2033. This would represent around 7% of Dubai’s projected property transactions for that year, underscoring the government’s confidence in blockchain as a pillar of its future economy.
Oversight is split between the DLD, which governs the physical property, and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), which licences Ctrl Alt as a broker-dealer and issuer. This ensures token standards match the legal and provenance requirements of traditional real estate.
A Model for Global Real Estate Markets
If successful, Dubai’s pilot could set a global precedent. It would become the first jurisdiction to maintain real-time, blockchain-based mirror records of all property transfers. Such an architecture could compress settlement times from weeks to minutes, significantly widen access to property markets, and enhance transparency across the board.
Ctrl Alt is no stranger to asset tokenisation. The firm has already tokenised $295 million worth of alternative assets, including private credit and litigation finance. Yet, the Dubai deployment stands out as its most high-profile and impactful project to date, placing its technology at the centre of a property market that processed over $218 billion in transactions last year.
Despite the promise, caution remains. Ctrl Alt has issued risk warnings for retail investors, noting that virtual assets can be volatile and that fractional deed holders are not covered by traditional investor-protection mechanisms.
Nevertheless, the project aligns with Dubai’s long-term strategic goals—both its Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033 and the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33), which advocate for digital-first reform. The PRYPCO Mint platform is live, the first tokenised apartments are active, and every transaction now settles irrevocably on XRPL.
