Sun and security: Why it’s not just the UK’s ultra-rich shifting to Dubai for a better life

Sunil Sharma has settled in his new life in Dubai much more easily than he initially thought he would. Until a few months ago, the 31-year-old financial services professional was based in the City of London, commuting in daily from the town of Maidenhead, around 30 miles to west of the UK capital. But, recently married, he’d become increasingly disillusioned with life in Britain.

“I suggested to my boss that potentially I could move here [Dubai]” he told The National. “We have an office here, so it kind of made a lot of sense. The general UK decline played a massive role in terms of making the decision to move. I could have carried on doing what I was doing, which was travelling to the Middle East once a quarter.

“Part of the decision was the brilliant opportunity in Dubai in general, but a massive part were the tax increases [in the UK], the safety issue especially in London, no real growth or prosperity and a general downbeat feeling.”

Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employments Confederation feels there are some things that are really driving heavier than usual mobility at the moment. “There’s an awareness, particularly among young professionals in the UK, that their skill sets are valued in other countries,” he told The National.

While part of the motivation to relocate overseas is financial, part emotional and part political, it’s entirely personal. For Mr Sharma, safety in London was issue, given the rise in petty theft on the city’s streets. “I would get [intra-company] emails saying ‘when you leave the office, don’t pull your phone out’, because someone can steal it,” he said.

But the experience and skills that young professionals in the 25-35 year old age bracket can glean in the City of London is attractive to overseas companies and multinationals.

Last week, a report from New World Wealth and Henley & Partners showed while London attracted millionaires and their families between the 1950s and the early 2000s, that trend has slowly reversed over the past decade. Between 2017 and 2023, the report claimed, the UK lost 16,500 millionaires to migration. In addition, provisional estimates for last year show a net outflow of 9,500 millionaires projected for 2024 alone, with the top destinations expected to include Paris, Dubai and Singapore.

In addition, according to Morgan McKinley’s 2024 London Employment Monitor, London’s financial services sector has seen a sharp fall in job availability. Job postings dropped 18 per cent between the third quarter to the final quarter of last year and fell by 28 per cent as a whole in 2024, when compared to the previous year.

“These stark figures paint a sobering picture of an industry grappling with mounting challenges, including economic volatility, geopolitical uncertainty, strategic overhauls, and the rapid pace of technological disruption,” said Mark Astbury, director of projects, change and transformation at Morgan McKinley.

“Additionally, our finance teams have seen candidates pursuing roles in global financial hubs like Dubai and Singapore. These markets offer strong growth and competitive career prospects, making them attractive, despite London’s established financial reputation,” he told The National.

‘A great opportunity’

British newspapers have been quick to point out the almost contradictory position of the UK government, which on the one hand emphasises the need to attract foreign wealth into the country, while at the same time moulds tax policies which seem to be giving cause for wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs to leave.

But while the headlines usually concern ultra-high net worth individuals and millionaires, little attention has been given to the likes of Mr Sharma, who represents the future of British entrepreneurship and wealth.

“I can’t think of one person who I spoke to who said, ‘are you sure this is a wise move?’” he told The National. “Every single person was overwhelmingly upbeat – ‘a great opportunity’, they said. I was really, really surprised by the number of people who said they were also looking to relocate.”

Denis Kravchenko, business development manager in Cyprus for the international relocation company Astons, is not surprised. For him, various factors have given young, skilled people enhanced global mobility in recent times, not least the reach of the internet. “We do have a lot of British clients,” he told The National. “Fifteen years ago, the average age would have been 45-plus. It’s much, much different now – it’s between 30-45 years old.”

“For a lot of younger people, their source of income is remote,” he added. “They are able to generate their income remotely and from the perspective it doesn’t really make any difference where you are physically. So, with that in mind, obviously you would want to relocate to somewhere safer with a better climate.”

Andrew Marr, managing partner at Forbes Dawson tax specialists, agrees: “These kind of people have been trained to work location-independently during covid,” he told The National. “If they can persuade an employer to let them work from home, then why not go abroad and tap into some tax benefits?”

For Mr Carberry it’s not just the ability to work from anywhere in the world, but the fact that job searches for young professionals in London’s finance sector will now, more often than not, have a global dimension in the first place.

“International mobility, if people choose to engage in it, is much easier, because [for example] a job search in the US in the world of the internet is an easier thing to do, and candidates are easier in the world of LinkedIn for employers in other countries to see,” he told The National. “There is a growing awareness in some of these jurisdictions that the relative offer that employers are able to make is attractive to British professionals.”

Nearly three-quarters of 18-30 year olds in the UK would consider living and working in another country in the short or long term, according to the British Council's Next Generation UK 2024 report.

Similar research by the foreign currency traders, Currencies Direct, showed 38 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 are considering moving abroad in the next five years. “With many countries offering attractive options for both quality of life and property investment, and almost half of expats (49 per cent) report improved mental health within the first six months, moving overseas can be a rewarding decision,” said Nigel Fox, vice president at Currencies Direct.

Mr Sharma talks of an “emotive connection” with Britain, and while he still very much views the country as home, he doesn't see much that is calling him back. “I would love to raise children in the UK – that would be the ideal scenario,” he told The National.

“But at the same time, do I want to raise children in an environment where safety is always a concern, where the economy’s not growing, and the opportunities are better elsewhere? As of now [a return to the UK] seems very, very unlikely.”