Family offices in the UAE: why private capital keeps choosing Dubai in 2026

Back in 2023, KPMG forecast that by 2026 companies, family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals would move roughly $500 billion in assets into the UAE, adding about 6.7% to GDP. Three years on, that forecast looks conservative: DIFC alone reports that family offices registered there were managing $1.2 trillion in assets by mid-2026.

How many, and from where

According to the Financial Times, the number of family offices in Dubai grew from roughly 600 in 2023 to about 1,000 by mid-2025, with much of the new growth coming from Chinese families who would previously have chosen Singapore. A parallel British exodus is well documented: an estimated 16,500 millionaires may have left the UK in 2025, and a share of them landed in the UAE. Public examples include Lakshmi Mittal (ArcelorMittal, net worth around $20 billion), who relocated from the UK over inheritance tax and bought a home in Dubai plus land on Naïa Island; Revolut founder Nikolay Storonsky moved earlier.

Henley & Partners' wealth migration report put the UAE's 2025 net inflow at 9,800 millionaires with combined investable wealth of about $63 billion — the highest of any country in the world, more than 2,000 ahead of the US in second place. For scale: the global forecast for 2025 was 142,000 relocating millionaires, with the UK losing about 16,500 and China about 7,800.

Where family office money actually goes

A Knight Frank survey of 150 family offices worldwide (averaging $560 million under management, over $84 billion combined) found real estate consistently ranks among the top three asset classes, and nearly half planned to increase their allocation to it within 18 months. Strategy mix: opportunistic deals 32%, value-add (buy, renovate, sell) 30%, conservative core 16%. The typical holding horizon runs 3-9 years, with a target return of 13.8% a year, prioritising housing, logistics, prime residential and hospitality.

One telling detail: US and Australian family offices keep 86-93% of their capital at home, while Swiss, Singaporean and Hong Kong offices diversify far more widely — and it is this latter group that most often opens a second or third base inside DIFC or ADGM.

What it means for the housing market

A family office relocation is never just one apartment purchase. It typically comes with a permanent staff that needs both office space inside a financial centre and representative-grade housing for the principal and the team. That means demand in two segments at once: prime villas and apartments for living, and commercial space near DIFC, where the UAE runs a separate legal system built on English common law — a factor that often matters more to family capital than the headline tax rate.

This kind of inflow tends to run alongside rising demand for golden visas, since long-term residency has become a precondition for relocating an operating structure rather than a side effect of it. See how the golden visa actually works for the mechanics.

For the legal framework most family offices and funds operate under, see our guide to DIFC.