Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Dubai Land Department (DLD), through the Dubai Real Estate Institute (DREI), hosted the ‘SMARTInvest Real Estate’ conference organised through a strategic partnership with The Grid Media Ltd. The conference witnessed several activities that focused on the impact of digitisation and new technologies in managing the urban environment.

During the conference held at DLD’s headquarters under the title ‘Digitalisation in the Built Environment,’ a group of leading industry experts discussed topics centred around technology as an increasingly revolutionising force in the built space value chain and how stakeholders in the sector are embracing and interacting with the digital age.

Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director General of DLD, said: “We look forward to stimulating interaction between the real estate, investment, and technology sectors, and encouraging all parties involved in this sector, including government institutions and developers, to adopt new thinking and best practices to further develop our real estate sector and strengthen its global position and competitiveness. The outcomes of this conference will help us explore available opportunities for development with our partners in different sectors to provide unique services to our customers and underpin our presence in keeping up with the latest digital developments, strengthening our efforts in keeping up with the latest digital developments in line with the Smart Dubai Strategy and the Dubai 10X initiative to propel Dubai into the future, putting it 10 years ahead of other global cities through government innovation.”

The conference witnessed a number of speakers, including Hend Obaid Al Marri, CEO of DREI; Majid Saqer Al Marri, CEO of the Real Estate Registration and Services Sector at DLD; Mohammed Alsharaf, COO of Eltizam Asset Management Group; Geoff Smith, Partner, Head of Real Estate, Middle East, CMS; Siddiq Farid, Founder & CEO of Smart Crowd; Uros Trojanovic, General Manager Strategy and Planning of Eltizam Asset Management Group; Robert Flaws, Head of Tech, Media and Telco CMS; and Nesar Khan, Managing Director Middle East, Lightspeed Tech.

Hend Obaid Al Marri commented: “The UAE is one of the most advanced digital economies in the world, ranking globally among the top 20 and the first in the Arab region. Real estate has long been a key economic driver for the UAE and will continue to be for 2019, making up 6.4% of the country’s non-oil gross domestic product (GDP), whose overall value reached Dhs81.2 billion. Referring to international monetary fund (IMF) data, the UAE’s GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 is positive, and Dubai’s GDP growth will climb to 4.1% this year. Due to investment stimulus packages and government spending of $2.5 billion on infrastructure projects this year, the economic activity will be boosted nationwide.”

“The conference was an opportunity to explore cooperation with a number of partners who are able to provide DREI with educational services and academic consultancy to provide participants with specialised knowledge required by our real estate market, especially regarding modern technologies.”

During his speech, Majid Saqer Al Marri said: “The real estate registration and services sector is considered the core sector for DLD’s services, comprising registration, valuation, customer services, and survey departments. DLD proudly achieved seventh place globally in the Ease of Doing Business report for real estate registration, and we intend on reaching first place. We also have eight smart applications, with Dubai Real Estate Self Transaction (REST) as the top application, which will replace paper title deeds and enable self-transactions without the need to go to DLD in support of the 10X initiative. In addition, we currently have 10 service centres all over Dubai and 17 registration trustee centres.”

Majid Al Marri added: “DLD recently launched the Smart Audit initiative, which reduced the registration transaction time from 1.5 days to same-day transactions. We are already participating in the Dubai Learns initiative, and the team is expected to finish its first phase throughout December 2019. This will speed up processing times from three days down to less than one minute, offering substantial improvements and savings to customers and DLD. On 1 April, we launched the E-Mortgage with all banks in the UAE, allowing banks to finalise mortgage transactions with one step, enhancing customer experience by reducing the needed number of steps.”

DREI signed another MoU with International Talents Institute (ITI) Training and Consultancy to cooperate in promoting DREI’s training courses and advisory services for mutual benefit.

DREI signed an MoU with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Dubai to benefit from university and graduate study opportunities, vocational training and development, and professional academic programmes provided by the university.

DREI also signed an MoU with Potential.com in Knowledge Park Dubai to establish long-term cooperation to benefit from academic training programmes and initiatives, the Internet platform, marketing, and other services provided by the Institute, and to explore other areas of cooperation for the benefit of both parties.

DREI signed the eighth MoU with Emirates Canadian University College in Umm Al Quawain.