The UAE will attract more new millionaires this year than any other country, according to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2024.
Millionaires from the UK, India and Africa re being lured by a combination of golden visas, low tax, enviable lifestyle and a strategic location, said the report.
For the third year running, the UAE looks set to take first place as the world’s leading wealth magnet, with a record-breaking 6,700 moneyed migrants expected to make the Emirates home by the end of the year.
UAE millionaires
The number is significantly boosted by large inflows from the UK and Europe.
The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2024, released by investment experts Henley and Partners, shows the net inflows and outflows of millionaires. It categorises a millionaire as a high net-worth-individual with liquid investable wealth of $1m and counts the number who relocate to and the number who emigrate from a country.
The UAE has entrenched itself as the world’s number one destination for migrating millionaires and is poised to welcome a record net inflow of 6,700 this year alone.
According to Henley and Partners the UAE is attracting millionaires “with its zero income tax, golden visas, luxury lifestyle, and strategic location”.
With consistent high inflows from India, the wider Middle East region, Russia, and Africa, the anticipated influx of larger numbers of Brits and Europeans looks set to see the Emirates attract nearly twice as many millionaires as its nearest rival, the US, which is projected to benefit from a net inflow of 3,800 millionaires in 2024.
Sunita Singh-Dalal, Partner leading the Private Wealth and Family Offices at Hourani in Dubai said: “The evolution and development of the UAE’s wealth management ecosystem is unprecedented. In less than five years, the UAE has introduced a robust regulatory framework that provides the wealthy with a range of innovative solutions to protect, preserve and enhance their wealth.”
Singapore takes third prize again with net inflows of 3,500, while the perennially popular destinations for migrating millionaires, Canada and Australia, follow in fourth and fifth places with net inflows of 3,200 and 2,500, respectively.
10 countries with most millionaire incoming migration in 2024
- UAE: +6,700
- USA: +3,800
- Singapore: +3,500
- Canada: +3,200
- Australia: +2,500
- Italy: +2,200
- Switzerland: +1,500
- Greece: +1,200
- Portugal: +800
- Japan: +400
Head of Research at New World Wealth, Andrew Amoils, says the benefits of this migration of wealth and talent to these destination countries are significant and wide ranging.
He said: “Migrating millionaires are a vital source of forex revenue as they tend to bring their money with them when they move to a country. Also, around 20 per cent of them are entrepreneurs and company founders who may start new businesses and therefore create local jobs in their new country, and this percentage rises to over 60 per cent for centi-millionaires and billionaires.”
The UK is expected to see an unprecedented net loss of 9,500 millionaires in 2024 — second only to China worldwide, and more than double the 4,200 who left the country last year, which was itself record-breaking following the exodus of 1,600 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in 2022.
China is again on track to be the biggest millionaire loser globally, with an anticipated net exit of 15,200 HNWIs this year (compared to 13,800 in 2023) whereas India has stemmed its wealth exodus, dropping down to 3rd place after the UK with just 4,300 millionaires projected to leave the country in 2024 (compared to 5,100 last year).
South Korea’s HNWI flight is expected to rise with a forecast loss of 1,200 millionaires (compared to 800 in 2023) while the tsunami of millionaires that fled Russia following the outbreak of the Ukraine war appears to be abating with only 1,000 projected to relocate this year (compared to 8,500 in 2022 and 2,800 in 2023).
Dominic Volek, Group Head of Private Clients at Henley & Partners, says 2024 is shaping up to be a watershed moment in the global migration of wealth. “An unprecedented 128,000 millionaires are expected to relocate worldwide this year, eclipsing the previous record of 120,000 set in 2023”.
The UK, and London especially, has traditionally been seen as one of the world’s top destinations for migrating millionaires and for many years (from the 1950s to early 2000s) it consistently attracted large numbers of wealthy families from mainland Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
However, this trend began to reverse around a decade ago as more millionaires began to leave the country and fewer came in.
Notably, during the six-year period from 2017 to 2023 post Brexit, the UK lost a total of 16,500 millionaires to migration. Provisional estimates for 2024 are even more concerning, with a massive net outflow of 9,500 millionaires projected for this year alone.
