Abu Dhabi to put land records on blockchain

Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is set to put its land registry on a blockchain platform.

The Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities, a government agency responsible for Abu Dhabi’s development strategy, has partnered with Indian IT firm Tech Mahindra for the initiative, according to a press release shared with The Block on Monday.

The agency wants to provide Abu Dhabi citizens with a blockchain-based solution called SmartHub, which will help trace land records and reduce the processing time it takes to do real estate transactions. The solution will store all property-related documents issued by municipalities on a blockchain and help track records via nodes extended to different entities, per the announcement.

"The implementation of next gen technologies like Blockchain and SmartHub digital services will help serving a wider segment of citizens enhancing customer happiness, quality of life and accessibility of our services,” said Ahmad Abdolsamad AlHammadi, CIO of Abu Dhabi Municipality, on behalf of the department.

He added: “This is a beginning of many more services that we plan to roll out during the course of the year,” without providing specific details.