Dubai Land Department, DLD, a government body that handles all legalisation processes related to sales and purchases of land in Dubai, has developed an interactive multi-platform application that helps investors and developers track the progress of all real estate development projects in the emirate.

‘Mashrooi’, developed in exclusive partnership with Emaar Properties Group, combines innovative technology with open data to drive transparency in the real estate sector for both developers and investors. The platform also allows developers to showcase upcoming developments to potential investors via the application, supplementing existing promotion methods.

Sultan Butti bin Mejren Director-General, Dubai Land Department, said, "Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, recently launched Smart Cities and Open Data initiatives which aim to make Dubai one of the smartest cities in the world, providing residents and visitors the highest levels of technology, transparency and accuracy of information in the world.

"In line with this vision, we have developed Mashrooi, which is the first government funded application of its kind anywhere in the world. This application serves to provide up to date and accurate information on all buildings under development in the emirate, enabling investors, residents, schools, business owners and others to be able to make informed decisions about where to live, work or invest."

Mashrooi will be unveiled for the first time at this year’s Cityscape Global 2017, hosted in Dubai. The app is the first in a long-line of planned initiatives from DLD designed to foster collaboration and encourage open data across the property sector.

Through the app, users are able to search for any project under development and track construction progress data. Also, through an augmented reality, users may also visually compare the construction progress to the artistic renderings of the completed building. Further enhancements to the application will include using advanced elements like the ability to order a ‘drone-inspection’ of a project site that by using a GPS tracker will deliver real-time video footage and graphics.

The application will be available for download during Cityscape Global 2017.