Nearly Half of Affluent UAE Residents Now Plan to Retire in the Country: 44% in the Money on the Move 2026 Study, With 78% Expecting at Least Eight More Years

10 September 2026

Forty four per cent of affluent and high net worth residents in the UAE now plan to retire in the country, according to the Money on the Move 2026 report published this week by St. James’s Place. The study surveyed 450 affluent and high net worth residents of the UAE in May 2026, all of them people who have lived and worked in more than one jurisdiction. Alongside the retirement figure, 78 per cent expect to stay abroad for at least another eight years, 55 per cent have already stayed longer than they originally planned, and 59 per cent expect to go home eventually but not before they retire. This is a survey of intentions, not a change in the law: no visa rule, tax rate or fee moved on the day it was published. What it does change is the planning horizon, and the UAE rulebook for someone who intends to grow old here is very specific about numbers.

What the study actually measured

Money on the Move is St. James’s Place’s research programme on cross border wealth, and the 2026 United Arab Emirates edition is the first one dedicated to this country. The fieldwork was completed in May 2026. Respondents were aged 25 to 54, came from a wide range of international backgrounds, and were segmented by a derived wealth classification built on annual household income and investable assets. In the UAE, the high net worth band was defined as an annual household income of at least AED 700,000 combined with investable assets of at least AED 700,000.

That definition matters when reading the headline. This is not a poll of the general expatriate population, and it is not a poll of billionaires either. It covers the professional and entrepreneurial middle and upper middle of the UAE resident base, the group that actually decides whether to buy a home, incorporate a holding company or keep renting and remitting.

One of the more counterintuitive findings sits inside that segmentation. Mass affluent respondents were 2.7 times more likely than high net worth respondents to describe the UAE as a permanent home. The people with the largest balance sheets are the ones keeping the most options open, while those a step below are the ones putting down roots.

The money case behind the decision

The economics reported by respondents are unusually consistent. Some 96 per cent said they earn more in the UAE than they would in a comparable role at home, and 97 per cent said they save more every month. Almost half, 48 per cent, said they earn and save at least 25 per cent more. Among those whose discretionary spending has gone up, 88 per cent said they are also putting more into savings and investments rather than simply spending the difference.

That translates directly into the retirement timeline. Sixty four per cent believe reaching financial independence would have taken at least five years longer had they never moved abroad, and 70 per cent believe living in the UAE will let them retire at least three years earlier than they otherwise would. Daniel George, Head of Business for the Middle East at St. James’s Place, framed the shift in the report as a move from short posting to long life: careers advance, wealth accumulates, and the reasons to leave thin out.

Country choice is not accidental either. Taxation policy, residency and visa frameworks, and access to education and healthcare were each cited by 92 per cent of respondents as factors shaping where they choose to live. In other words, the same three files that a corporate services adviser handles every week are the ones the client is scoring the country on.

The complications the same respondents report

The study is not a promotional document, and the friction it records is worth as much as the optimism. Eighty nine per cent named the high cost of living as a barrier to managing wealth effectively. Eighty six per cent pointed to cross border regulation and taxes, currency volatility and limited access to their preferred investment products. Eighty five per cent cited a simple lack of time.

Confidence is thinner than the balance sheets suggest. Only 27 per cent consider themselves highly financially literate, and the gap between those who do and those who do not is wide on every measure the study tracked: diversified portfolios across asset classes, 43 per cent against 29 per cent; feeling prepared for wealth succession, 68 per cent against 28 per cent; having taken advice in both the home and the host market, 70 per cent against 28 per cent; and reporting that their financial position improved while in the UAE, 82 per cent against 67 per cent.

Succession is the weakest link in the whole dataset. Just 9 per cent of respondents feel fully prepared to pass wealth on. That figure sits alongside a separate and much larger regional number: Gulf family businesses are expected to hand roughly USD 1 trillion in assets to the next generation within a decade. Respondents also put a price on delay. On average they estimated that earlier financial advice would have saved them USD 56,410 in missed opportunities, or USD 9,248 for every year spent abroad, and that a better grasp of cross jurisdictional tax rules would have avoided an average USD 42,315 in tax losses, or USD 6,917 a year.

Geopolitics shows up in a shape few would predict. Ninety two per cent said they were concerned about regional instability and 46 per cent called it a major concern, yet seven in ten said their view of the region as a place to live had become more positive over the past year.

Who published the research

St. James’s Place (Middle East) Limited is a DIFC company on the public register of the Dubai Financial Services Authority under reference number F003486, licensed on 29 May 2023. Its permissions cover advising on financial products, arranging deals in investments and arranging custody, with an endorsement to deal with retail clients. The firm is a wealth manager reporting on its own client universe, which is worth keeping in mind when reading a finding such as 89 per cent wishing they had taken advice sooner. The demographic figures, by contrast, line up with independent counts: Dubai now holds 81,200 resident millionaires and 43 billionaires, in a city whose population passed 4.5 million.

What the rulebook says for a resident who intends to stay

Intending to retire in the UAE is a visa question before it is an investment question, because a residence permit here is tied to work, property, investment or a defined retiree route rather than to age alone. The figures below are the ones published by the UAE Government portal, updated on 28 July 2026.

The retiree permit is issued without a sponsor or host inside the country and is renewed on the same terms on which it was first granted, according to the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, which runs the service alongside the federal identity and citizenship authority. A golden visa carries its own advantages that matter in retirement: no sponsor is required, the holder can stay outside the UAE for longer than the usual six months without losing residency, and family members including a spouse and children can be sponsored. Our golden visa guide sets out the categories in detail, and the family route was covered when 167,000 golden visas had been issued to families.

Two practical consequences follow from the table. First, the AED 1 million property test for the retiree route and the AED 2 million capital test for the golden visa are different thresholds for different permits, and a purchase sized for one does not automatically satisfy the other. Second, the Dubai income test is higher than the federal one, AED 240,000 against AED 180,000, so where the application is filed changes the qualifying number. Anyone financing a home with credit should read the mortgage rules for residents and non residents before assuming a mortgaged property counts the same as an outright purchase.

There is no state pension for expatriates, and that is the planning gap

The federal pension and social security system covers UAE citizens. An expatriate in the private sector accrues an end of service gratuity under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 instead, and since 2023 there has been a funded alternative to it. Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023 created a voluntary savings scheme under which the employer pays a monthly subscription into an investment fund licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority in place of accruing gratuity on the books.

The mechanics are precise and worth knowing before a conversation with an employer or, if you own the company, before deciding whether to enrol staff:

• The basic monthly subscription is 5.83 per cent of the beneficiary’s basic salary for less than five years of service and 8.33 per cent for more than five years.
• The rate is set by continuous service counted from the date of employment, not from the date the employee joined the scheme.
• Subscriptions must reach the fund account within 15 days of the first day of the calendar month.
• The employer may not deduct the subscription from the employee’s salary, and the amounts are not refundable to the employer.
• Employees may add voluntary contributions on top, capped at 25 per cent of total salary a month, or the same percentage annually for a lump sum, and may withdraw them at any time during employment on the fund manager’s terms.
• Voluntary contributions do not form part of the statutory end of service entitlement, and unless the employee chooses otherwise they default into the capital guarantee portfolio.
• Fund managers must offer at least a capital guarantee option, risk based portfolios and Sharia compliant funds, and must themselves manage no less than AED 1 billion, hold at least three years of track record and lodge a AED 5 million letter of guarantee with the regulator.

The Dubai International Financial Centre went further and made a funded scheme compulsory. The DIFC Employee Workplace Savings plan launched in February 2020 and, as the centre reported on 8 October 2025, passed USD 1 billion in assets under administration with 2,726 employers enrolled and 74,323 individuals registered, plus more than USD 340 million already paid out to former participants. It has since been extended to expatriates working in 61 Government of Dubai entities.

What changes for business and for residents

Nothing in law changed on 10 September 2026. What the study supplies is evidence, and evidence is useful in a specific set of decisions:

• Nothing to file, nothing to comply with. This is survey data. There is no new permit, threshold, fee or deadline attached to it, and any adviser presenting it as a rule change is selling something.
• Employers should expect longer tenures. If 78 per cent of an affluent workforce expects at least eight more years abroad, retention economics, end of service funding and benefit design should be modelled on that horizon rather than on a three year posting.
• The savings scheme decision is now a recruitment argument. An employer that enrols staff under Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023 is offering a funded, regulated and portable benefit instead of an unfunded book entry. For a candidate planning to retire here, that difference is visible.
• Residency structure should be chosen before the property purchase, not after. The AED 1 million retiree test and the AED 2 million golden visa test are not interchangeable, and the Dubai income test of AED 240,000 differs from the federal AED 180,000.
• Cross border tax exposure does not disappear with a UAE residence permit. Eighty six per cent of respondents flagged cross border regulation and taxes as a barrier, and 87 per cent believe better knowledge would have avoided losses. Home country rules on residence, pensions and inheritance continue to apply on their own terms.
• Succession documents are the thinnest part of the file. With 9 per cent of respondents feeling fully prepared, wills, corporate ownership structures and beneficiary designations are the work most often postponed and the most expensive to fix late.

How Atlant Capital can help

We work on the corporate and residency side of a long term move, which is where most of the practical friction sits:

• Company formation on the mainland or in a free zone, including holding structures for those who intend to keep a business running past the point of formal retirement.
• Residence and work visas, Emirates ID and the medical examination, including family sponsorship, and the retiree and investor routes described above.
• Golden visa support, from eligibility assessment against the published categories through to submission.
• Corporate and personal bank account opening, including the source of funds file that banks in the UAE now expect from long term residents.

Accounting, audit, VAT and corporate tax filing are handled by licensed accounting firms in our partner network rather than in house. Investment advice and financial planning are regulated activities and sit with licensed advisers such as the firm that published this study.

The bottom line

The number worth remembering is not 44 per cent. It is the pairing of 78 per cent expecting at least eight more years here with 9 per cent feeling ready to pass anything on. A population that has quietly extended its stay from a posting to a life has not yet extended its paperwork to match. The residency routes exist and their thresholds are published to the dirham. The funded savings alternative exists and its contribution rates are set out in the resolution. What is missing, on the study’s own evidence, is the decision to use them early rather than late.

FAQ

Can a foreigner retire in the UAE permanently?

There is no permanent residency for foreigners, but there is a renewable retirement visa valid for five years. To qualify you must be at least 55 at the time of retirement and have worked at least 15 years inside or outside the UAE, plus either own property of no less than AED 1 million together with savings of no less than AED 1 million, or have an annual income of at least AED 180,000. Applications filed in Dubai require a fixed annual income of no less than AED 240,000. The permit is issued without a sponsor and is renewed on the same terms.

Do expatriates get a state pension in the UAE?

No. The federal pension and social security system covers UAE citizens. Private sector expatriates accrue an end of service gratuity under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021, and since 2023 employers may instead enrol them in a voluntary funded savings scheme created by Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023, under which the employer pays 5.83 per cent of basic salary monthly for under five years of service and 8.33 per cent after five years into a regulated investment fund.

Is a golden visa better than a retirement visa for someone planning to stay?

They solve different problems. The retirement visa runs five years and is built around age, service history, savings and income. The golden visa runs five or ten years depending on category, requires minimum capital of AED 2 million for investors, allows the holder to remain outside the UAE for longer than the usual six months without losing residency, and permits family sponsorship. A property purchase sized for one route does not automatically satisfy the other.

What did the St. James’s Place study actually find about retirement in the UAE?

It surveyed 450 affluent and high net worth UAE residents in May 2026 and found that 44 per cent plan to retire in the country, 78 per cent expect at least another eight years abroad, 55 per cent have already stayed longer than planned and 59 per cent expect to return home eventually but not before retirement. On the financial side, 96 per cent earn more than in a comparable role at home, 97 per cent save more monthly and 70 per cent expect to retire at least three years earlier as a result.

What should a resident planning to retire in the UAE sort out first?

Residency structure before the property purchase, because the AED 1 million retiree threshold and the AED 2 million golden visa threshold are separate tests. Then the end of service arrangement, since a funded scheme under Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023 behaves very differently from an unfunded gratuity. Then succession documents, which only 9 per cent of the study’s respondents felt fully prepared on. Home country tax and pension rules continue to apply regardless of UAE residency.