Dubai is home to 81,200 millionaires, and the number doubled in ten years

The annual ranking of the world's wealthiest cities orders them by the number of resident millionaires, centi-millionaires and billionaires. Dubai holds 18th place with 81,200 resident millionaires.

The rate matters more than the rank

Growth in the number of millionaires in Dubai over ten years was 102%. On that measure only three places in the world are ahead — two Chinese cities and San Francisco with Silicon Valley.

For comparison, New York holds first place on absolute numbers — 384,500 millionaires, 818 centi-millionaires and 66 billionaires — but grows noticeably more slowly.

What sits behind it

The ranking's authors link Dubai's growth to the deliberate transformation of the UAE into a global financial centre with zero income and capital gains tax. That is not an image factor but a direct one: a wealthy person chooses a jurisdiction by what is left after tax.

How this connects to property

• The top segment. Every millionaire who relocates is demand for housing costing several million dollars and up, and supply of that kind in the city is limited.
• The middle segment. Wealthy residents are followed by their staff, lawyers, doctors and their children's teachers — and they need housing of a different class.
• Rentals. A significant share of arrivals rent first and buy only a year or two later. That lag is what supports the rental market.

One caveat: rankings of this type count residents by declared place of residence, and wealthy people often have several. Read the number as an indicator of the direction of flow, not as a census.