While millionaire migration is on a rise, about 88,000 HNIs are projected to relocate to new countries. Leaving behind other mighty investment destinations, with the projected inflow of 4,000 individuals UAE is leading the charts attracting the highest millionaires’ immigration. However, the same influx is staging UAE’s rise as a promising wealth hub. Let’s find out.
Barring 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, wealth migration has increased manifold across the world in the past decade. With a growing variety of migration paths available such as residence and citizenship by investment (RCBI) programs, it is becoming quite imperative to understand where millionaires are choosing to migrate and why?
According to the report released by Henley & Partners, migration patterns of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) have witnessed an upward trend. About 88,000 millionaires are projected to shift to new countries, with UAE leading the charts attracting a projected inflow of about 4000 HNWIs as compared to the net inflow of 1,300 HNWIs in the year 2019. Faring amidst an extremely volatile and changing environment worldwide, the year 2022 is expected to unravel new emerging trends which are expected to define the markets in the coming years.
However, this remarkable rise of UAE as one of the promising investment hubs for millionaires has not been an overnight story. In the past few years, conducive government policies combined with an agile approach towards tweaking immigration regulations have staged Emirates as a focal point among the opulent investors.
At Square Yards diving deep into the prevailing trends of millionaire migration, we came up with some of the plausible reasons and expected turn of events in UAE’s realty segment. Let’s begin!
UAE Emergence as a Millionaire Magnet
As per the latest report titled “Henley Global Citizens Report (2022)”, while wealth emigration is on a rise for countries namely China, Hong Kong (SAR) and Brazil due to deteriorating relationships with western countries, UAE’s ascent as a promising investment hub has been remarkable. Expected to witness the highest net influx of high-net-worth individuals (4,000 individuals) globally in 2022, UAE has inked one of the largest millionaire influx on its record with a dramatic increase of 208% as compared to 2021.
Over the past decade, UAE has been constantly focusing on increasing its tourism and trade by implementing consecutive waivers on Visa and RCBI programs to encourage a huge amount of private wealth. And on similar lines, now the country is all set to garner private wealth, talent, and capital with its competitive and proactive approach to changing immigration rules.
However, this growth of UAE has been further compounded amidst the rising geopolitical tensions among the countries, mighty investment destinations losing their sheen, and threats regarding high taxes, to quote a few. For example, from investors’ perspective, now more individuals are seeking to eschew the devastating western sanctions on Russia and rising tension between China and western countries, eyeing the markets offering them a conducive and investor-friendly environment.
Worth of Real Estate Transactions On a Rise
Emerging as a lucrative investment landing point, while UAE is expected to transcend the most favoured destinations of millionaires, the same sentiment is being reverberated by the real estate transactions data trends as well.
Source: Dubai Land Department (DLD)
According to the Dubai Land Department (DLD), there has been a significant increase in the total worth of real estate transactions in the year 2022 as compared to a similar period in 2021. Showing a positive investment sentiment, for May 2022 Dubai recorded 6,634 real estate transactions worth AED 18.22 billion as compared to 4,360 real estate transactions worth AED 10.95 billion in May 2021. A similar trend was reflected in the first four months of 2022. This indicates that following various government initiatives such as new categories added to the Golden Visa rules, Dubai’s properties undoubtedly have been positioned as one of the most preferred investment assets from a long-term perspective.
What’s Next?
Rooted in the projected high influx of high-net-worth individuals, this is a no-brainer that UAE is all poised to be one of the preferred investment and migration destinations in the upcoming years, especially for wealthy individuals who scaling up their lifestyle and expanding the worth of their assets. Furthermore, one can also expect a more advantageous and opportune environment for investors in UAE as the country continues to embark on the journey of redefining the factors influencing the markets at a macro as well as micro-level.
