Stake, the MENA region’s leading digital real estate investment platform, and ACE & Company, a Swiss-headquartered global investment group focused on private markets, with more than $2.0 billion in assets under management, today announced a strategic partnership to support the development of liquidity solutions for investors in Stake products. The agreement will focus initially on the platform’s real estate portfolio in the UAE, held through Prescribed Companies, the equivalent of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in DIFC.

The initiative is intended to create a more liquid, transparent, and efficient marketplace for investors seeking exposure to fractional real estate opportunities through Stake’s platform. By combining Stake’s innovative access model with ACE & Company’s longstanding experience in private market investing and secondary transactions, the partnership aims to strengthen the investment ecosystem around fractional ownership structures in the UAE.

The joint venture reflects both firms’ confidence in the long-term fundamentals of the UAE. At a time of heightened regional uncertainty, the UAE continues to distinguish itself through economic resilience, political stability, high-quality infrastructure, and sustained global investor interest. These attributes have helped position the country as one of the region’s most compelling destinations for long-term real estate capital.

Through the planned secondary infrastructure framework, investors in Stake products are expected to benefit from greater flexibility in managing their holdings, improved visibility around market pricing, and clearer pathways to liquidity. In turn, the broader market stands to benefit from enhanced stability, stronger price discovery, and increased participation and confidence in fractional real estate as an investable asset class. The framework operates within Stake’s existing DFSA-approved regulatory permissions, providing investors with established oversight and regulatory clarity. Stake is regulated by the DFSA, the independent regulator for business conducted from or within DIFC.

For Stake, the partnership marks an important step in the continued evolution of its platform, extending beyond access to ownership and toward the development of more mature market infrastructure. For ACE & Company, the collaboration draws on its extensive experience in private equity and secondaries to help unlock liquidity solutions in a fast-growing segment of the alternative investment landscape. The DIFC’s established private markets framework, and its Prescribed Company regulations in particular, have been central to enabling this model, providing the institutional and legal infrastructure on which this secondary transfer facility innovation is built.

Manar Mahmassani, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Stake said:

“The UAE has always rewarded those who invest in it with conviction, and that’s exactly what this partnership represents. Stake was born in crisis. We launched during COVID, when global real estate markets were struggling and Dubai’s property industry was at its low point. What we saw was a market that is far from broken, but fundamentally sound, going through a temporary challenge. That conviction has never left us. 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.”

Sherif El Halwagy, Partner and Co-Founder at ACE & Company said:

“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 is designed to benefit all stakeholders across the ecosystem. Existing investors gain added optionality and transparency, prospective investors gain greater confidence in the structure, and the market benefits from stronger liquidity mechanisms, a scalable source of permanent/long-term capital and a more institutionalized framework for participation.

As fractional ownership continues to gain traction globally, Stake and ACE & Company believe that robust secondary infrastructure will play a critical role in supporting the sector’s long-term growth. The joint venture represents a shared commitment not only to product innovation, but also to building the underlying market architecture needed to support sustainable expansion in the UAE and beyond.

Attributed to: Fernando Fanton, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Property Finder

In the global race for digital supremacy, the conversation often centers on legacy hubs. However, for those of us operating at the intersection of high-growth technology and urban evolution, the focus has shifted. Today, Dubai is no longer just a destination to “set up” a business; it has become the definitive place to build the future of your industry.

As a company that has achieved significant scale within this ecosystem, Property Finder has had a front-row seat to a remarkable transformation. We have seen Dubai evolve from a regional leader into a resilient, future-focused global hub that offers a unique combination of speed as a strategy and resilience by design. For the international tech community, the message is clear: the structures, momentum, and insights required to turn global ambition into tangible growth are being perfected right here.

Resilience by Design

What sets Dubai apart today is its ability to turn complexity into clarity. In a world defined by market volatility, Dubai has doubled down on stability through the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33). This isn’t just a policy document; it is a roadmap that provides the international tech community with a predictable, pro-innovation regulatory framework.

At Property Finder, this environment has been a true enabler of scale. Our ability to innovate is tied directly to the sophistication of Dubai’s digital infrastructure. Whether it is the Dubai Land Department’s (DLD) open approach to rental market data or the visionary Real Estate Evolution Space (REES) initiatives for property tokenization, the government provides a transparent framework that allows us to test, iterate, and scale digital solutions with absolute confidence.

The Shift from Intuition to Intelligence

The UAE real estate market has grown significantly more complex. Our data shows that between 2022 and 2025, the number of active agents rose by 30% annually, while listings increased by 34%. Yet, simultaneously, buyer behavior became more surgical; engagement per listing dropped by 36% as users began spending less than 40 seconds per listing.

In such a fast-paced environment, “intuition” is no longer enough. This is where Dubai’s digital ecosystem shines. It empowers companies to move toward intelligence-led execution.

By leveraging millions of data points, we launched SuperAgent, MENA’s first AI-driven agent ranking platform. This tool assesses responsiveness and listing quality to highlight top performers, rewarding professionalism and guiding brokers on how to prioritize leads effectively. This level of transparency replaces guesswork with measurable insights, allowing us to stay ahead of the market rather than merely reacting to it.

Practical AI: Engineering Trust

The international tech community is currently grappling with how to move AI beyond the hype into functional utility. In Dubai, the Smart City 2030 vision provides the perfect backdrop for this. This initiative isn’t just about gadgets; it is a city-wide integration of AI into the very fabric of our buildings: driving energy efficiency, enhancing safety via smart sensors, and increasing property values through technology-driven living.

We believe that for AI to be effective, it must be grounded in real-world expertise. Our AI-driven Home Valuation feature is a prime example. While our algorithms process decades of proprietary data and live market signals in seconds, we combine that “machine intelligence” with human context to ensure the results are accurate and reliable. This is critical in a dynamic market where historical data alone can be misleading. Today, a user in Dubai can monitor a portfolio with clarity on potential returns and near-term value trends, making the real estate experience more predictive and transparent.

A Coordinated Ecosystem for Global Ambition

Scaling a high-growth tech business requires more than just good code; it requires a trusted network of stakeholders. Dubai offers an unparalleled concentration of capital and expertise, with strong relationships between tech leaders and global investors such as Mubadala, Blackstone, and Permira.

When you combine this capital with milestones like a 100% paperless government and the rapid adoption of Web3, you get an ecosystem that simplifies the administrative weight of business to empower the core mission: innovation and global expansion.

My Message to Tech Leaders

To the founders, CTOs, and innovators looking at the global map: look closely at the momentum in the Middle East. Dubai’s Digital Strategy 2030 is not about digitizing existing services; it is about reimagining what a city can be when it is built on a digital-first foundation.

The city offers the structure to protect your business and the speed to accelerate it. We have moved from a market of “potential” to a market of “proven impact.”

In a world where uncertainty is the norm, Dubai provides clarity. It brings together the key ingredients required to turn ambition into tangible outcomes: data, infrastructure, capital, and collaboration. More importantly, it aligns these elements within a cohesive strategy that prioritises innovation and resilience in equal measure.

For those seeking to lead the next wave of digital transformation, Dubai provides the most fertile ground to turn bold ambitions into a global reality.

Construction companies across the UAE may be overlooking one of the most valuable outcomes of the country’s new R&D Tax Credit regime. Introduced under Ministerial Decision No. 24 of 2026 and effective from 1 January 2026, the framework offers credits of 15% to 50% on qualifying R&D expenditure. Yet, according to Dhruva, a Ryan Affiliate, many construction businesses have yet to identify the full extent of qualifying activity or put in place the processes required to claim these benefits.

As one of the UAE’s most economically significant sectors, construction is uniquely positioned to benefit from the regime. Innovation in this sector is continuous, spanning materials, construction methods, digital tools and safety systems but much of it has historically not been classified or documented as R&D.

“The construction sector innovates constantly, in materials, in methods, in software, in safety. The challenge is that much of this activity has never been labelled R&D, and therefore never documented as such. That is precisely where value is being left on the table. Companies that begin mapping their qualifying activities now, and build the evidence trail the regime demands, will be the ones positioned to capture this benefit when it matters most,” said Nimish Goel, Leader Middle East, Dhruva, Ryan LLC Affiliate.

To qualify under the regime, R&D activities must meet five criteria aligned with the OECD Frascati Manual: they must be novel, creative, uncertain in outcome, systematic, and transferable or reproducible. For construction businesses that approach innovation with defined objectives, structured experimentation and documented results, a wide range of activity meets this threshold.

In practice, qualifying activity in the construction sector can include the development of advanced materials such as low-carbon concrete and smart composites, experimentation with modular construction techniques and prefabrication systems, and proprietary software development for Building Information Modelling (BIM), digital twins and AI-driven project management. Sustainability innovation also qualifies, including net-zero building systems and passive cooling technologies suited to UAE conditions, as does the adoption of robotics and drone-based construction and inspection methods.

The critical distinction lies between routine construction activity and genuine R&D. Applying an established methodology to a new project does not qualify. Systematically resolving technical uncertainty through experimentation and documenting that process does.

A distinguishing feature of the UAE regime is its dual-threshold structure. Each credit tier requires businesses to meet both a minimum level of qualifying expenditure and a minimum average R&D headcount. The first AED 1 million of qualifying spend attracts a 15% credit with at least two R&D staff; spend between AED 1 million and AED 2 million qualifies for 35% with at least six staff; and spend between AED 2 million and AED 5 million attracts 50% with at least fourteen. Where headcount thresholds are not met, the applicable credit rate is reduced accordingly.

For construction companies, this makes workforce planning integral to tax strategy. Specialist roles including materials scientists, structural engineers working on novel challenges, proptech developers and robotics engineers not only drive innovation but also determine access to higher credit tiers. Staff costs additionally benefit from a 30% uplift in qualifying expenditure, further strengthening the case for building dedicated R&D capability.

“This is not just a tax incentive; it represents a structural shift in how innovation is recognised within the construction sector. Businesses that act early will not only benefit financially but also strengthen their long-term technical capabilities,” added Nimish.

The regime places significant emphasis on contemporaneous documentation and structured processes. Pre-approval from the relevant authority is mandatory, and businesses must maintain detailed technical records of R&D objectives, methodologies, experiments and outcomes for a period of seven years. For construction companies, this requires embedding R&D tracking into project workflows from the outset, rather than attempting to reconstruct evidence retrospectively.

Construction groups operating centralised engineering or shared technology platforms should also review their structures carefully. Intra-group transactions are excluded from qualifying expenditure, making it critical to ensure that R&D costs are appropriately allocated at the entity level.

“The UAE’s construction sector is building the physical infrastructure of a knowledge economy. It is fitting that those who innovate within it now have access to the same calibre of R&D incentive as their counterparts in technology or manufacturing. The question is not whether to engage, but how quickly companies can build the processes to do so effectively,” concluded Nimish.