Real Estate & Construction
Record transactions. Real obligations.
Dubai real estate moved a record AED 761 billion in 2024. That volume carries duties: supervised AML programs for brokers and developers, the PDPL over every buyer, tenant and resident record, and payment-redirect fraud aimed at exactly your escrow and invoice flows. We make the obligations one program and the fraud a much harder shot.
We are the GRC and compliance experts who pull it all together and make security look easy, so you can focus on actual security.
record Dubai real-estate transactions in 2024, a fifth higher than the year before
Source: Dubai Land Department
growth in active ransomware groups targeting the UAE in one year, with data-rich, security-thin firms the easiest prey
Source: CPX State of the UAE Cybersecurity Report 2025
explicitly reaches owners’-association data: Emirates IDs, payments, CCTV footage and smart-building occupancy
Source: UAE PDPL analysis
Why it feels harder than it should
Several rulebooks, one business.
Brokers and agents sit under federal AML supervision with per-transaction reporting duties and emirate licensing through DLD and RERA in Dubai or ADREC in Abu Dhabi. Developers add escrow and project rules plus enhanced checks on high-risk buyers and crypto-linked settlement. Property and facilities managers hold resident data, access systems and building controls under the PDPL. Construction firms carry project designs, bids and worker records on famously thin IT. Different desks, same group, many rulebooks.
What this looks like in practice
One group, three exposures: a brokerage arm filing transaction reports under AML supervision, a development arm running escrow accounts that fraudsters study patiently, and an owners’-association arm holding Emirates IDs, payment records and CCTV footage squarely under the PDPL. Most groups discover these are three different programs during due diligence. Ours discover it in a two-hour assessment.
What actually hits real estate and construction
Verizon confirmed 499 real-estate breaches this year, 100% financially motivated, with personal data taken in 43%: buyer files, tenant records, IDs. The attack built for this sector is patient: study the escrow flow, learn how the paralegal writes, send revised payment instructions on the right Friday. Ransomware crews targeting the UAE grew 58% in a year, and data-rich, security-thin firms are the stated preference.
growth in ransomware groups targeting the UAE in one year
Source: CPX 2025
of real-estate breaches take personal data
Source: Verizon 2026 DBIR
How they get in
Source: Verizon 2026 DBIR, global breach patterns
The authorities that reach this sector.
MoET
Ministry of Economy & Tourism (AML supervision)
Supervises designated non-financial businesses for anti-money-laundering: accountants, auditors, corporate service providers, real estate brokers, and dealers, including goAML registration and annual risk assessments.
DLD / RERA
Dubai Land Department / RERA
Licenses Dubai real-estate activity: broker registration, project and escrow rules, Mollak for owners’ associations, and transaction reporting duties.
ADREC
Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre
Regulates Abu Dhabi real-estate licensing and conduct.
UAE Data Office
UAE Data Office (PDPL)
Federal personal data protection under the PDPL (Federal Decree-Law 45 of 2021): consent, processing, breach duties, and cross-border transfer for nearly every business.
Your regulators, sector by sector
Find yourself in the list.
We cover every name on it.
Brokers and agencies
- Focus
- Supervised AML with per-transaction reporting, customer due diligence, sanctions screening, and payment-redirect fraud on transfers.
- Standards
- Federal AML law; PDPL; emirate licensing rules.
- Certification
- goAML registration plus broker licensing.
- Rhythm
- Continuous reporting; annual risk assessment; annual licence renewal.
Developers
- Focus
- Escrow integrity, enhanced due diligence on high-risk buyers, crypto-linked settlement rules, buyer data protection.
- Standards
- AML rules including virtual-asset provisions; escrow law; PDPL.
- Certification
- Project and escrow registration.
- Rhythm
- Per-project registration with continuous monitoring.
Property management and FM
- Focus
- Resident and tenant data, service-charge collections, building management and access systems, CCTV under the PDPL, vendor risk.
- Standards
- PDPL explicitly reaches occupancy and CCTV data; RERA rules in Dubai.
- Certification
- OA management registration in Dubai.
- Rhythm
- Annual renewals; continuous data duties.
Construction and contracting
- Focus
- Design and BIM confidentiality, bid and tender protection, worker records, invoice-fraud defense, project-partner risk.
- Standards
- PDPL; ISO 27001 and ISO 19650 increasingly contractual on major projects.
- Certification
- Prequalification security requirements rising.
- Rhythm
- Per-tender and per-project.
These are summary profiles. Behind each one sits a complete obligation map, control set and calendar that AccuSights maintains for clients. Seeing yours is what a demo is for.
One program instead
How we make it one control set.
We map your group once: which entities carry AML duties, where the PDPL reaches, which projects impose contractual security, and where the fraudsters will aim first. Then one program runs it, with the read-only compliance agent keeping continuous watch and your annual assessments arriving prepared instead of feared.
Cross-mapped controls
One control, mapped to every regulator on this page that it satisfies.
Evidence collected once
Reused across every emirate, free zone, and framework that applies to you.
Always audit-ready
A read-only compliance agent keeps the picture current. You keep the keys.
Global breach figures: Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report, the 19th edition, analyzing more than 22,000 confirmed breaches across 145 countries. Regional figures: EMEA section of the same report, and UAE public statistics as cited.
Book a demo
See your obligations as one program.
Thirty minutes with an engineer who works in UAE regulation. You leave knowing which rules apply to you, where the gaps are, and how one control set covers them.