UAE continues to make big moves in the RWA tokenization space with another major announcement signaling the maturing of the fractional real estate market. Stake, a DIFC-based fintech company and the leading real estate investment platform in the MENA region, has entered a strategic partnership with ACE & Company to develop a secondary transfer facility aimed at unlocking liquidity for investors in tokenized property assets.
Ace & Company is a global investment group focused on private markets, with more than $2.0 billion in assets under management.
Liquidity in RWA tokenization
The agreement aims to expand Stake’s UAE-based real estate portfolio, structured through Prescribed Companies within the Dubai International Financial Centre. These entities function similarly to Special Purpose Vehicles, which are increasingly favored for fractional ownership models that mirror tokenization trends seen across digital assets.
The initiative’s main focus is to address the issue of liquidity in alternative investments. Limited exit pathways has been one of the biggest challenges in fractional ownership. While entering the space by buying tokenized assets has become seamless with the advancement of Web3 platforms, exiting positions is still opaque and time consuming.
The planned secondary framework will change that dynamic by enabling peer-to-peer transfers of ownership stakes. The facility is expected to create a more seamless marketplace where pricing becomes more transparent making investor participation more flexible. This model draws parallels to secondary trading venues in private equity and even decentralized exchanges, where liquidity deepens as participation scales.
Stake continues to build on its offerings
For Stake, which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, this infrastructure push will be a part of its existing regulatory permissions, offering a layer of oversight that has mostly been missing in the global fractional real estate platforms.
This collaboration arrives at a pivotal moment when the UAE is positioning itself as a hybrid hub for both traditional and digital finance. Despite the broader geopolitical volatility, the country has maintained strong capital inflows, particularly into real estate, driven by high-net-worth migration, institutional interest and policy stability.
Manar Mahmassani, co-founder and co-CEO of Stake, says the partnership is a continuation of a long-term narrative of the UAE’s resilience in times of economic and geopolitical crisis.
“Today, the world is watching the region, and we want to be unambiguous about where we stand: we are long Dubai, and we are long the UAE. This is not the moment to retreat: it’s the moment to build the institutional infrastructure this market deserves. That’s exactly what this partnership is all about – a mature, resilient market attracting institutional confidence and capital committed for the long run.”
This view is not restricted to any sector or industry. Increasingly, the UAE is becoming globally recognised as one of the most stable and resilient markets in the world. In a period of strife and regional tensions, the Gulf nation has managed to stay on its feet and sustain its growth momentum.
A coming together of traditional values and modern technology
Fractional ownership models, while not always blockchain-based, echo the same ethos of accessibility, democratization and liquidity that underpins tokenized assets.
For ACE & Company, which manages more than $2 billion in assets globally, the partnership extends its footprint into a segment that is beginning to resemble early private credit and secondaries markets.
Sherif El Halwagy, partner and co-founder of Ace & Company, pointed out that the firm’s experience in secondary transactions was a key factor behind the tie-up.
“Drawing on almost two decades of experience in offering liquidity to investors across private markets ecosystems via secondaries, we see a tremendous opportunity in real estate secondaries in the UAE. This partnership reflects our conviction in the country’s long-term fundamentals and our disciplined approach to capital deployment in high-quality assets. We look forward to further strengthening our relationships with investors and partners across the region.”
The partnership marks a move that goes beyond a single platform. This is the evolution of the broader RWA tokenization market from a niche product to a fully tradeable asset class. Enhanced price discovery, increased investor confidence and deeper liquidity pools could attract a new wave of buyers, including institutional investors that have so far remained cautious about the space.