Dubai Government Joins Hands With UAE Bank for a Blockchain-based Mortgage Platform

The real-estate arm of Dubai’s Executive Council - the Dubai Land Department (DLD) - has joined hands with UAE’s Mashreq bank to unveil its new blockchain-based mortgage platform.

On Tuesday, May 28, The National released a report stating that the blockchain-based platform will act as a repository for mortgage records and will provide a way to confirm that the mortgages easily comply with the registration policies.

Besides, the blockchain platform will also track and accommodate all the updates taking place after a property sale. This include changes to mortgages, or payment defaults, or recording liquidations.

In an effort to transform itself as a smart city, Dubai has been taking several measures to accommodate new generation technologies like the blockchain. The blockchain-based mortgage platform is one such effort from the DLD to streamline their services.

DLD’s Director General Sultan Butti Bin Mejren said: “The development and launch of the new e-mortgage system comes as part of our ongoing efforts to enhance automation applications and systems in our transactions to reduce paper transactions and the number of visits.”

Last year, the Dubai Land Department launched another blockchain-based system called the Real Estate Self Transaction system that aims at digitizing documents for all the paper transactions in addition to streamlining the brokerage processes.

In September 2018, under the Smart Dubai initiative, the Dubai government launched a blockchain-powered payment system called the “Payment Reconciliation and Settlement”.

Similarly, in October 2018, the Dubai’s Credit Bureau entered a partnership with blockchain payment provider Pundi X to provides PoS terminals for in-store payments. Over the next three years Pundi X is likely to provide 10,000 such terminals.

An unnamed spokesperson for Dubai’s Credit Bureau said: “To be the world's first city to offer blockchain-based payment solutions to our residents is an exciting moment for Dubai. It confirms Dubai's status as an international tech hub. Deploying cutting-edge technology such as blockchain is a key priority and is delivering benefits to our citizens in the form of convenience and securities to customers and merchants across Dubai”.