Foreign investment in the Dubai housing market, 2020-2024

Annette Alstadsæter, Matthew Collin, Bluebery Planterose, Gabriel Zucman and Andreas Økland
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Annette Alstadsæter: NMBU
Matthew Collin: EU Tax Observatory
Bluebery Planterose: EU Tax Observatory
Gabriel Zucman: EU Tax Observatory
Andreas Økland: NMBU

No 10, Notes from EU Tax Observatory

Abstract: This note presents new evidence on the scale of foreign investment in the Dubai residential property market. Using new data comprising the ownership of a large share of the Dubai property market, we present updated estimates of foreign-owned real estate for the years 2020 and 2022. We find that foreign nationals hold around 43% of the total value of all residential property in the city. Foreign-owned residential real estate grew by 20%—around $23 billion—between the beginning of 2020 and early 2022. We also find evidence of a substantial boom in Russian interest in the city following the invasion of Ukraine, with both utility accounts and residential leases associated with Russian nationals increasing sharply. Relying on simple assumptions to allocate new property purchases across nationalities, we conservatively estimate that Russians bought up to $2.4 billion worth of existing properties and a further $3.9 billion of in-development properties since the invasion.

Keywords: Foreign real estate ownership; money laundering; global asset registry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F38 H26 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2024-05
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