Inayat-ur-Rahman, Business Editor

Dubai has positioned herself as the ultra-rich hub which provides luxury lifestyle, booming real estate and above all destination for wealth preservation.

This was stated by Kashif Ansari, CEO and Co-founder of Juwai IQI, during an exclusive interview with Gulf Today.

“Dubai is the New York of GCC. We have witnessed the growing number of wealthy individuals are relocating to Dubai. Many high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) have chosen Dubai for their wealth preservation and luxury living. According to the latest report from Henley & Partners, the number of high-net-worth individuals in Dubai surged by 18% in recent times.” Ansari added.

“Dubai has attracted 3,500 HNWIs to relocate to the city. The number is getting bigger as high as wealthy families have confidence in Dubai’s economic outlook. Lot of family office are being set up in Dubai. It is estimated that Ultra rich and family offices are going to contribute $500 billion to UAE economy by 2026. Massive increase in the economy size and wealth accumulation.”

Ansari further shared about the real estate market in Dubai which is become the new global currency. Dubai residential prices are expected to hit over 20% in 2024. The real estate is booming in UAE which has become the hallmark for her economic resilience and confidence from global investors. According to the latest report from Deloitte Feb 2024 the Dubai real estate market performance has been robust across all sectors fueled by the preferred safe haven status of the Emirate, amidst geopolitical and economic headwinds in other global investment markets. Key economic and demographic statistics also indicate growth compared to the previous year.

“As of June 2023, Dubai’s population has crossed 3.6 million, marking a 1.4% year-to-date increase compared to the prior year. The number of tourist arrivals also saw an increase of 19.9% from January to November 2023, reaching 15.4 million tourists. Moreover, the gross domestic product (GDP) for the first half of 2023 exhibited a growth of 3.2%, totaling Dhs 223.8 billion. Among industries, the transport and storage sector notably outperformed others, experiencing a 10.5% expansion during this period.”

Strategically speaking Ansari said, all sophisticated and smart investors are moving to Dubai to buy luxury and branded real estate to leverage from the boom in the market. This growing trend will keep Dubai on the global investors radar.