The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre has introduced a new service specifically designed to strengthen family bonds through property. The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, affiliated with the Department of Municipalities and Transport and the regulatory body for the emirate’s real estate sector, in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Housing Authority, has launched a service allowing citizens to register requests to purchase land in designated outer areas near their relatives’ residences, through the Abu Dhabi government services platform TAMM, in accordance with approved conditions and controls.
This is an important service to distinguish clearly from Abu Dhabi’s investor-facing freehold framework: it is a citizen-only benefit, part of the government’s ongoing programme to support Emirati homeownership and family cohesion, rather than a new avenue for foreign or investor land acquisition. Understanding exactly what this service does, and does not, offer is useful context for anyone tracking how Abu Dhabi’s real estate regulatory ecosystem continues to evolve in 2026.
What the Service Actually Does
The new service allows eligible citizens in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to register requests to purchase land near their relatives’ residences, in accordance with approved conditions, supporting the objectives of the “Year of the Family 2026” in strengthening family bonds and supporting family stability. This directly ties the new ADREC service to the UAE’s broader 2026 national initiative, “Year of the Family,” which has also been referenced in other Abu Dhabi community and housing announcements throughout the year, including the Yas Community Park and Nabdh Yas initiative launched jointly by Aldar and the Department of Community Development in June 2026.
The Remah area in Al Ain is the first location where this new service pathway has been activated, enabling eligible citizens across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to register requests to purchase land near their relatives’ residences under the approved conditions.
| Service Detail | Information |
| Launching authority | ADREC, in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Housing Authority |
| Access platform | TAMM (Abu Dhabi government services platform) |
| Eligibility | UAE nationals (citizens) only |
| First activation location | Remah, Al Ain |
| Policy alignment | UAE’s “Year of the Family 2026” initiative |
| Process | Digital journey from application submission to ownership registration |
Why This Matters Within ADREC’s Broader Digital Transformation
Rashed Al Omaira, Director-General of the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, confirmed that the Centre continues to develop the real estate sector ecosystem in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by updating regulatory frameworks and raising the efficiency of real estate transactions, noting that the new service represents an extension of the Centre’s citizen-focused services, providing an integrated digital journey that begins with application submission and ends with ownership registration.
This positions the new land-purchase-near-family service within ADREC’s continuing pattern of digitising every stage of the property transaction lifecycle in Abu Dhabi. Following the application submission, ADREC completes its procedural journey by reviewing the request, verifying eligibility against the approved conditions, and coordinating with the Abu Dhabi Housing Authority throughout the registration process, all managed digitally through TAMM.
This service arrives within a broader context of ADREC digital service expansion throughout 2025 and 2026, including the fully digital buy-sell journey launched in October 2025, which enabled buyers and sellers both inside and outside the emirate to complete property sale transactions entirely digitally, without paper documents or in-person meetings, using UAE Pass for secure digital signatures from anywhere in the world, and the earlier expansion of Tawtheeq rent contract renewal services through TAMM confirmed in June 2026. Each of these initiatives reflects the same underlying strategy: converting Abu Dhabi’s property transaction processes, across both investor-facing freehold zones and citizen-focused housing programmes, into fully digital, TAMM-based journeys.
How This Fits Within Abu Dhabi’s Citizen Housing Support Framework
This new service should be understood alongside Abu Dhabi’s broader, and substantially larger, citizen housing support programmes already active in 2026. The Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme issued 759 housing approvals worth AED 616 million in Q1 2026 alone, part of a programme that has issued more than 73,000 housing support decisions since 1999, valued at over AED 50 billion, and which has helped the UAE achieve a 91% national homeownership rate. Separately, Abu Dhabi announced in September 2025 the development of 13 new communities for Emiratis, comprising more than 40,000 residential units and plots, at a total cost of AED 106 billion, including AED 36.95 billion specifically allocated to five new communities in Al Ain.
The new ADREC land-purchase-near-family service is a smaller, more targeted addition to this ecosystem, but a meaningful one for the specific citizens it serves. Rather than a general housing allocation, it addresses a specific family-cohesion need: enabling citizens to acquire land close to relatives, directly outside the standard investment zone allocation process. Its activation in Al Ain’s Remah area also connects to Al Ain’s broader positioning as Abu Dhabi’s second city and a major beneficiary of the emirate’s citizen housing investment, alongside the five new Al Ain communities already under construction as part of the September 2025 announcement.
An Important Distinction: This Is Not an Investor Service
For international investors and expatriate buyers tracking Abu Dhabi’s real estate regulatory news, it is worth being explicit about what this announcement does not change. This service is available exclusively to eligible UAE citizens and applies specifically to designated outer areas near relatives’ existing residences, a category entirely separate from Abu Dhabi’s freehold investment zones, which remain governed by Abu Dhabi Law No. 19 of 2005 and its 2019 amendments, open to foreign nationals only within the emirate’s approximately 50 designated investment zones.
Foreign investors seeking to understand Abu Dhabi’s actual freehold, usufruct, and musataha ownership structures should continue to reference ADREC’s investment zone framework directly, rather than this citizen-specific land allocation service. For guidance on distinguishing between Abu Dhabi’s various property ownership pathways and which apply to your specific situation, consulting a Trusted VIP property broker Abu Dhabi ensures clarity on which regulatory framework, investor freehold zones or citizen-focused housing programmes, is actually relevant to your circumstances.
What This Confirms About ADREC’s Regulatory Direction
Even though this specific service does not apply to international investors, its launch is a useful signal about the broader direction of ADREC’s regulatory development in 2026. It confirms a pattern of increasingly granular, purpose-specific digital services being layered onto TAMM’s central platform, rather than a single generic property registration process serving every buyer category identically.
For investors and buyers of any category, this pattern is worth understanding as context: ADREC’s overall approach in 2026 has consistently been to expand the number of specific, purpose-built services available through TAMM, whether for citizen family housing, off-plan escrow protections, rent contract renewals, or investment zone freehold registration, each with its own defined eligibility, process, and safeguards. This granularity is part of why ADREC’s H1 2026 results confirmed 50 total investment zones, 2,040 real estate profession licences issued, and a 34% increase in licensing activity, a regulatory ecosystem expanding in scope and specificity simultaneously. For guidance on how Abu Dhabi’s evolving regulatory landscape affects your specific investment category, our team at Abu Dhabi’s leading real estate advisory service provides up-to-date clarity across every ownership pathway.
Conclusion: A Targeted Service Within a Broader Digital Ecosystem
ADREC’s new land-purchase-near-family service is a modest but meaningful addition to Abu Dhabi’s citizen housing support framework, directly aligned with the UAE’s “Year of the Family 2026” priorities and launched first in Al Ain’s Remah area. While it does not apply to foreign investors, its structure, entirely digital, TAMM-based, and coordinated between ADREC and the Abu Dhabi Housing Authority, reflects the same regulatory philosophy shaping every corner of Abu Dhabi’s property market in 2026: purpose-specific, digitally native services replacing generic, paper-based processes across the entire real estate ecosystem.
The service allows eligible UAE citizens to register requests to purchase land in designated outer areas near their relatives’ residences, launched by ADREC in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Housing Authority through the TAMM platform. It is available exclusively to UAE nationals and is not a foreign investor or freehold service. For clarity on which Abu Dhabi ownership frameworks apply to your situation, contact our abu dhabi real estate investment advisor team.
The Remah area in Al Ain is the first location where this service pathway has been activated, allowing eligible citizens across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to register purchase requests for land near relatives under the approved conditions. This connects to Al Ain’s broader role as a major beneficiary of Abu Dhabi’s 2025-2026 citizen housing investment programme.
The service was explicitly launched to support the objectives of the Year of the Family 2026 in strengthening family bonds and supporting family stability, joining other 2026 initiatives with the same policy alignment, including the Yas Community Park and Nabdh Yas community hub programme launched by Aldar and the Department of Community Development in June 2026.
No. This service is available exclusively to eligible UAE citizens and applies to designated outer areas near relatives’ residences, entirely separate from Abu Dhabi’s investment zone freehold framework under Law No. 19 of 2005, which remains the relevant structure for foreign and expatriate buyers across the emirate’s roughly 50 designated investment zones. For Abu Dhabi’s leading real estate advisory service guidance on freehold, usufruct, and musataha ownership options available to international buyers, our team provides direct clarity.
It confirms ADREC’s continuing pattern of launching increasingly specific, purpose-built digital services through the TAMM platform, following earlier 2025-2026 initiatives including the fully digital property buy-sell journey (October 2025) and Tawtheeq rent renewal digitisation (confirmed June 2026). Rashed Al Omaira, ADREC’s Director-General, confirmed the Centre continues updating regulatory frameworks and improving transaction efficiency across every category of Abu Dhabi’s real estate ecosystem.
