How Rami Tabbara Is Unlocking Real Estate for the Digital Age

Entrepreneur

a day ago

"When we explain it to new users, we tell them it's like buying shares in a company - except the company is a property. You earn your share of rental income, benefit from appreciation, and you can do it all from your phone."
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Under the glittering skyline of Dubai, where property ownership often seems reserved for the super wealthy, one entrepreneur is dismantling the barriers piece by piece. Rami Tabbara, co-founder and co-CEO of Stake, is on a mission to make real estate investing as accessible as ordering food or hailing a ride.
"I spent nearly 20 years in real estate, and I kept running into the same wall," says Tabbara, formerly a Senior Vice President at Middle East property giant DAMAC. "The industry was paper-heavy, expensive, and intimidating. It just didn't make sense that one of the most powerful ways to build wealth remained locked behind layers of bureaucracy."
In 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tabbara launched Stake, a real estate platform built for the digital generation. The idea? Fractional ownership, transparency, and accessibility, all rolled into a user-friendly interface. For as little as 500 dirhams, anyone can now own a piece of Dubai or Riyadh real estate and earn income from it.
As its name suggests, fractional property ownership means you can buy a fraction of a property, rather than the whole thing. You benefit from income once the property is rented out, along with any capital appreciation. Stake recently crossed 1 billion dirhams in property transactions and has over one million users from across 210 countries.
Building in a Lockdown
Launching a property startup in the middle of a global pandemic might seem like a gamble. For Tabbara, it was the challenge he had been looking for. "Dubai's market had frozen, rents were falling, expats were leaving — it was chaos," he recalls. "But that forced us to build with discipline. We focused on trust, regulation, and compliance from day one. That's why we've been able to grow sustainably."
That foundation has paid off. Stake is now licensed by both the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA). It's also Shariah-compliant — another barrier removed for global investors.
Another challenge he faced was explaining to potential investors how fractional ownership works. "When we explain it to new users, we tell them it's like buying shares in a company - except the company is a property," says Tabbara. "You earn your share of rental income, benefit from appreciation, and you can do it all from your phone."
Stake's numbers speak volumes. Over 420 properties have been funded, 35 million dirhams has been paid out in rental income, and more than 250,000 investments have been made.
Retail investors can invest up to $100,000 annually, with a maximum ownership cap of 33% per property to prevent monopolisation. Those with a verified net worth over $1 million can exceed that limit — and even qualify for a UAE Golden Visa via Stake with a minimum 2 million dirhams investment.
Focused Growth, Not Just Listings
While other platforms scale by quantity, Stake opts for quality. "We're not a traditional marketplace. Every property we list is handpicked, analysed, and underwritten," says Tabbara. "We work with top brokers and asset managers to source the best performing assets — if it doesn't meet our yield and risk criteria, we don't list it."
In 2024, the company introduced its highest-yielding product to date — the Fix n' Lease fund - and expanded into Saudi Arabia, becoming the first platform licensed by the CMA to offer real estate access to global investors. Within five months, it launched three private funds in Riyadh, attracting SAR 135 million in foreign direct investment from over 10 countries.
With its regional footprint established, Stake has its eyes on a global rollout. New asset classes, new geographies, and crypto payments are all on the roadmap. "We're working on enabling crypto as a payment method. Many of our users, especially outside the GCC, prefer it. But we're taking a compliance-first approach," Tabbara explains.
That compliance-first mindset has also attracted heavyweight backers. Stake is supported by Aramco's Wa'ed Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company, and Al Jomaih Holding, a sign of confidence from some of the region's biggest institutional names.
Democratising Wealth, One Stake at a Time
For Tabbara, the mission goes beyond just property. "We've democratized access to wealth creation," he says. "We're giving people the chance to participate in markets that were once only available to the ultra-rich or big institutions. And we're doing it with full transparency, clarity, and accessibility."
The idea behind fractional property ownership has made its way into the world of crypto and the blockchain, with real estate tokenization. Dubai Land Department and Prypco recently launched a pilot scheme offering stakes in properties starting at 2,000 dirhams each.
Stake has been in active discussions with the Dubai Land Department (DLD) and digital assets regulator VARA and is currently working to align its platform with the new regulatory framework around tokenized real estate. "We expect to participate in the second phase of the pilot program, which is scheduled to go live in Q3 or Q4 this year," adds Tabbara.