UAE MoEI Launches New Digital Mortgage Release System After Repayment

The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoEI) has hosted its first-ever Customer Council meeting dedicated to improving the mortgage release procedure following loan repayment.

The initiative reflects the UAE government’s wider shift toward smart, citizen-focused governance, with a goal of achieving Zero Bureaucracy and providing seamless digital experiences to residents.

$0 Cost, Zero Visits, One-Day Completion

The updated mortgage release process, piloted in Ajman, introduces a digitally integrated model that eliminates the need for in-person visits, manual paperwork, and multiple agency follow-ups. What once took several steps across up to five physical visits and required six separate documents, can now be completed in just one working day automatically and entirely online.

This means that once a customer repays a housing loan, the system:

• Automatically cancels the direct debit at the Emirates Development Bank
• Triggers digital notifications to all concerned parties (including banks and real estate regulators)
• Eliminates the need to visit government departments to collect physical guarantees or clearance documents

This transformation marks a new era in post-loan services across the UAE and is expected to roll out across all emirates in the near future.

Addressing Past Challenges in the Customer Journey

The council brought together a diverse range of participants including federal and local government entities, the Emirates Development Bank, and a group of customers and housing beneficiaries.

The discussion focused on several historic pain points:

• Inconsistent document requirements across emirates
• Lack of digital coordination between relevant institutions
• Cumbersome manual steps that extended processing times
• Limited customer visibility into the status of their applications

By identifying these challenges directly from stakeholders, the MoEI and its partners were able to propose targeted digital solutions grounded in real-life user feedback.

Government Leaders Emphasize Customer-First Approach

Eng. Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs at MoEI, emphasized the ministry’s intent to include customers in the decision-making process, and stressed that such collaborative efforts are essential to translating policy into real-world outcomes, enhancing public satisfaction, and raising the UAE’s international rankings in digital government efficiency:

“The Customer Council meeting aligns with the UAE Government’s vision of building flexible and smart government services that place the customer at the heart of improvement and development. It reflects our commitment to involving customers in decision-making and enhancing transparency. The proposed solutions today are based on actual needs that have been identified and analysed within the framework of the Government Accelerators.”

Eng. Mohammed Bin Taliah, Chief of Government Services for the UAE Government, highlighted the crucial role customer councils play in advancing the nation's zero bureaucracy agenda. By serving as a direct channel for capturing the voice of the customer, these councils offer valuable insight into real-world challenges, enabling the government to redesign services in a more streamlined, adaptable, and efficient way. He further emphasized that the new mortgage release service marks a major step forward in federal-local integration, setting a new benchmark for collaborative, citizen-centric service delivery.

Ajman Pilot Marks the First Step

The Department of Land and Real Estate Regulation in Ajman is the first local entity to implement the model in full partnership with MoEI and the Emirates Development Bank.

Eng. Omar bin Omair Al Muhairi, Director-General of the Department of Land and Real Estate Regulation in Ajman, affirmed that the department’s involvement in the first customer council on mortgage release procedures reflects its strategic partnership with the MoEI. He noted that this collaboration builds on ongoing joint efforts to advance the real estate sector and boost government efficiency through forward-looking service solutions designed to keep pace with the UAE’s rapid development.

Transformational Results in Numbers

According to the MoEI, the new system:

• Reduces processing time to 1 day from the date of repayment
• Cuts customer visits from 5 to 0
• Reduces document requirements from 6 to 0
• Achieves 100% digital integration between ministries, banks, and local real estate regulators

This level of service redesign is expected to significantly boost user satisfaction and supports the UAE’s broader Smart Government and Zero Bureaucracy objectives.