Every year, wealth advisory firm Henley & Partners publishes a report that private bankers, family offices and national governments quietly treat as a scoreboard: which cities gained the most millionaires this year, and which lost them. It is a niche piece of research with an outsized effect on how nations market themselves. For the past two years running, the United Arab Emirates has topped that scoreboard as the world’s leading destination for relocating high-net-worth individuals — and Dubai, more than any single free zone or tax incentive, has been the reason why.
At a Glance
- The UAE has been the leading destination for millionaire migration for two consecutive years, per Henley & Partners
- Dubai’s millionaire population grew 102%, pushing it into the global top twenty wealthiest cities in 2026
- The city is forecast to add more than 7,000 new millionaires and roughly $7 billion in new capital in 2026 alone
- The UAE scored 85.3 on Henley & Partners’ new Global Wealth Mobility Competitiveness framework, one of the highest of any jurisdiction measured
- DIFC and ADGM have built common-law court systems and licensed family office frameworks specifically to receive relocating wealth
The Numbers Behind the Headline
Henley & Partners’ Private Wealth Migration Report 2026 puts real figures behind what had, until recently, been mostly anecdotal. Dubai’s population of dollar-millionaires grew by 102% over the period tracked, enough to push the city into the global top twenty wealthiest cities for the first time. The report forecasts Dubai will add more than 7,000 new millionaires in 2026 alone, bringing an estimated $7 billion in new capital into the emirate over the course of the year.
This year’s report also introduced a new Global Wealth Mobility Framework, moving away from simple net-migration counts toward a multidimensional score covering tax competitiveness, investor access, family inclusion, safety, connectivity and long-term residence pathways. The UAE posted a Wealth Mobility Competitiveness Score of 85.3 under that framework, one of the highest recorded — a signal that its appeal is not resting on any single lever like tax alone, but on the accumulation of several factors working in the same direction at once.
Why the Ranking Isn’t Guaranteed to Hold Forever
It is worth resisting the temptation to treat any single year’s ranking as permanent. Wealth migration is a competitive, cyclical business, and Henley’s own analysts have noted that shifting regional developments could make it harder for the UAE to repeat as the outright single top destination this year, even as it remains firmly among the leaders. Singapore, Switzerland, the United States and a handful of European jurisdictions all compete seriously for the same relocating capital, and rankings move year to year as tax policy, visa rules and geopolitics shift.
What has proven more durable than any single year’s ranking is the underlying structure driving Dubai’s appeal: zero personal income tax, a property-linked Golden Visa that turns a real estate purchase into a decade of residency, and a geographic position that puts London, Mumbai and Singapore each within a workable flight window. Rankings fluctuate; that combination of features has not changed materially in years.
What’s Actually Pulling the Money In
Ask relocation advisors what is driving the inflow and the answer is rarely one factor in isolation. Tax certainty matters, but so does the ease of actually getting a family settled — schooling, healthcare, a residence visa that covers spouse and children without a separate application process, and a property market transparent enough that buying a home does not require navigating an unfamiliar legal system from scratch. Safety and political stability, particularly relative to some of the regions this capital is leaving, show up consistently in survey after survey as a top reason for relocation, often ranked above tax savings alone.
Dubai’s answer to all of it has been to bundle these factors into a single decision: buy qualifying property, and residency, banking access and a stable operating environment for a family office or holding company tend to follow within the same transaction. That bundling, rather than any one incentive on its own, is what shows up in a Wealth Mobility Competitiveness Score of 85.3.
The Infrastructure Behind the Inflow
What distinguishes this wave of relocation from earlier ones is how much institutional infrastructure has grown up around it in a short span of years. The Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market have built out common-law court systems, licensed family office frameworks and asset management regimes specifically designed to receive exactly this kind of capital, rather than leaving relocating wealth to improvise its own structure on arrival. That matters more than it might first appear: a family relocating with a nine-figure balance sheet is not simply buying a home, it is choosing a jurisdiction to hold trusts, run a family office and eventually pass wealth to the next generation, and each of those decisions depends on legal and regulatory scaffolding that takes years to build credibly. The UAE’s decision to invest early in that scaffolding, well before the current migration wave crested, is arguably a bigger long-term differentiator than any single tax rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Henley & Partners Private Wealth Migration Report?
It is an annual study published by wealth migration advisory firm Henley & Partners that tracks the net movement of dollar-millionaires between countries and cities, drawing on data partnerships with wealth intelligence firms. It has become one of the most widely cited benchmarks for measuring which jurisdictions are gaining or losing high-net-worth residents each year.
How many new millionaires is Dubai expected to gain in 2026?
The 2026 Henley & Partners report forecasts Dubai will add more than 7,000 new millionaires in 2026, bringing an estimated $7 billion in new capital into the emirate over the course of the year, following growth of 102% in its millionaire population over the period the report tracked.
Is Dubai’s top ranking in wealth migration guaranteed to continue?
No single year’s ranking is guaranteed, and analysts note that competition from other jurisdictions and shifting regional conditions could affect the UAE’s position in any given year. What has stayed more consistent is the underlying combination of zero personal income tax, a property-linked residency visa and geographic connectivity that continues to make Dubai a serious contender regardless of where it lands in any single year’s table.
None of this is a guarantee that the trend continues indefinitely, and no serious advisor would frame it that way — wealth migration has always been cyclical, and today’s leading destination is rarely tomorrow’s guaranteed winner. But the scale of what has already moved, and the structural reasons behind it, are hard to wave away as a temporary blip. At Arsha Homes, we see the practical version of this story on a regular basis: families who started the conversation asking about a single Dubai property and ended it restructuring where they bank, where their children go to school and where they consider home. The report simply puts a number on something we have been watching happen in real time.
