The Role of Regulation in Institutional Adoption of Real Estate Tokenisation - A Comparative Study of India, IFSC GIFT City and the UAE

Mantasha Tarannum

Department of Management Studies

Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering

mantashatarannum2@gmail.com

Dr. Vinod Krishna M.U

Professor at Dayananda Sagar college of engineering

Department of Management Studies

vinod-mba@dayanandasagar.edu

ABSTRACT

Real Estate Tokenisation started with the introduction of blockchain technology. It is changing the world’s way of investing in assets by providing proportional ownership, improving liquidity and basically giving retail investors access to HNI investment opportunities they didn't have before. This technology is getting a lot of global attention but institutional adoption is largely dependent on the environment that regulatory bodies set for digital assets and tokenized securities. This study help to present the role of regulation in institutional adoption of real estate tokenization through a comparative analysis of three main jurisdictions India, IFSC GIFT City and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using secondary data the study analysed regulatory documents, policy reports and academic literature through a qualitative comparative policy analysis and thematic content analysis. The research looks at the impact of regulatory certainty, recognition through laws, investor protection, licensing, digital marketplace infrastructure and frameworks for foreign investments on institutional confidence. The finding show that institutions are more likely to participate where regulatory certainty, licensing frameworks and innovation-friendly policies can coexist. India has shown increasing regulatory engagement with digital asset innovation with IFSC GIFT City has given a more progressive regulatory environment for international financial activities whereas the UAE has supported itself by dedicated virtual asset regulations and innovation based policies and has established itself as a leading jurisdiction for institutional tokenization initiatives.

Proposed by this study is the Institutional Regulatory Readiness Framework (IRRF) which is an six dimensional conceptual framework for measuring the institutional readiness towards real estate tokenization in various jurisdictions. The paper proposes a Regulatory Readiness Framework that combines legal, technological and institutional dimensions to provide knowledge of jurisdictions for large-scale real estate tokenization. By comparing three regulatory ecosystems, the study offers practical advice for policymakers, regulators, financial institutions and market participants who are seeking to improve institutional adoption.

Index Terms: Real Estate Tokenization, Institutional Adoption, Blockchain, Regulation, IFSC GIFT City, United Arab Emirates, India, Real-World Assets (RWA), Digital Assets, Regulatory Readiness.