Last year, 65 % of the total money within UAE had belonged to 40 billionaires. All in all, at the end of last year there were an additional more high net worth individuals. Last year alone there were 62 billionaires in the UAE holding up to $168 billion in wealth. The UAE has also been ranked as the tenth Country in the world with the most number of billionaires, whereas Dubai has been ranked as the eighth city in the world with the most number of billionaires.

Most billionaires in UAE have made their wealth in the real estate sector. But there are those that had made their wealth from other professional services such as law firms and consultancies, the healthcare sector, technology and the financial services such as banks, wealth managers, fund managers etc.

There have been nine billionaires will have emerged in the UAE this year as compared to the last year thereby taking the total to 36 known self-made or ‘first generation’ billionaires.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher, Hurun Report mentions, “ “It is worth noting that we estimate that for each one we have found we have missed potentially as many as two, meaning the true number of existing self-made billionaires in the GCC may be as many as over 100. However, based on the current growth, we expect the number of self-made billionaires in the region to grow by at least three over the next 10 years to 110. This reflects the existing ones we missed in previous years and the new ones created.”

He also continued to state, “I would expect a continued growth in the number of expats, since the UAE is considered to be a stable country in the region, offers a high quality of life and has an attractive tax regime. With the vision of growth expected for 2030, there will be more UAE nationals who grow into billionaires.”

There are many more billionaires in the UAE who are yet to rise from the new economies that include transportation, investments, healthcare, real estate as well as life sciences. Majority of the new billionaires are expats. Some of the major reasons how so many billionaires can be born in UAE is majorly due to lower tax rates, strong rules of law, very good educational institutions, very healthy food,world-classs luxury, great healthcare services, and a reputation as a global business hub which majorly attracts the east and the west to UAE thereby creating an environment to raise ultra-high net worth individuals.

Thanks to the stable UAE economic with very low tax regime, we expect to see many more new billionaires to be expats that are more likely to migrate to UAE and also new Emirati billionaires in sectors such as e-commerce and healthcare. The billionaires in the UAE are more likely to invest in real estate as the current prices look very lucrative for them in the long run.