Where are they going? What the data actually shows about European relocation to the UAE.

A July 2026 survey by Feather, reported by Euronews, asked 2,000 adults across the UK, France, Germany and Italy whether they were considering leaving their country. Nearly half said yes, and the reason given most often was the cost of living. Their preferred destinations were Spain, Canada and Australia. Only 3 percent named Dubai.

I have seen that 3 percent quoted as evidence that the UAE has lost its pull with Europeans. It is the wrong reading, for a reason that has nothing to do with loyalty to my own market: the survey measured intention, not behaviour, and it was taken while regional tension was leading the news. Intention polls are noisy. What people actually did is a matter of record, and the record says something else.

This piece is the long version. Numbers, sources, the visa mechanics, a real cost comparison, and the parts of the move that nobody advertises.

The number that matters is the one nobody polled

Roughly 500,000 Europeans already live in the UAE. Against a population of about 11.5 to 11.8 million, that is close to 5 percent of everyone in the country. The largest groups:

• United Kingdom: about 250,000
• Russia: about 150,000
• France: about 30,000 to 45,000
• Italy: about 18,700
• Germany: about 10,000

Put those two facts next to each other. Three percent of Europeans say they would consider Dubai. Five percent of the UAE is already European. The first number is a mood; the second is a census-level fact about people who moved, signed leases, enrolled children in schools and stayed.

There is a second problem with reading the 3 percent as rejection. Spain, Canada and Australia are familiar. They are places most Europeans have visited, where the language is either shared or easy, and where the legal path is understood. Familiarity dominates intention surveys. It says very little about outcomes.

The destinations they chose are exporting people for the same reasons

Here is the part that turns the survey on its head. The three countries at the top of the list are themselves losing residents, and the complaints of their leavers are almost word for word the complaints of the Europeans who want to arrive.

**Spain.** Around half of young Spaniards say they want to leave, and the reasons are salaries that have not kept pace and housing costs that have. Their top destinations are Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. A French or Italian professional moving to Spain for a cheaper life is passing young Spaniards heading the other way, for the same reason.

**Canada.** In 2024, 106,134 people emigrated from Canada, the highest figure since 1967. More than 4 million Canadians now live abroad. The drivers are housing costs and taxation, and the top destinations are the United States, Mexico, Portugal and Costa Rica.

**Australia** is named in every version of this story and never examined, so let me do that properly.

Australia, actually examined

Australia is the third pick on the list, and it has a genuine emigration story of its own.

More than 260,000 people left Australia in the 2024 to 2025 financial year. Net overseas migration fell to about 306,000 for that year, down sharply from the post-pandemic peak, and the federal government has moved to cut migration intake specifically because housing supply could not absorb it. That is the tell: the country Europeans name as an escape from housing costs is itself rationing arrivals because of housing costs.

Australian house prices rose about 39 percent in five years. The response inside the country has been internal, not international: Queensland and Western Australia have absorbed a steady flow of people leaving Sydney and Melbourne, and Queensland has led internal migration for five straight years. When Australians do leave the country, the pattern splits between lifestyle moves to Southeast Asia, mostly Bali, driven by the cost of housing and childcare, and career moves to financial centres, chiefly London and increasingly Dubai.

The tax picture matters here too. Australia's top marginal rate sits around 45 to 47 percent. Spain is about 45 to 47 percent. Canada reaches 50 to 53 percent in the high tax provinces. The UAE's personal income tax rate is zero. For a mid career professional, that single line is worth more than any salary negotiation they are likely to win.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics overseas arrivals and departures; Statistics Canada emigration estimates 2024.

What it actually costs: Dubai against London

Comparisons in this debate are usually vibes. Here are line items. London is the fair comparator: the UK is the largest European nationality in the UAE and the largest source of departing millionaires in the world.

Groceries in London run about 48 percent higher than Dubai, and restaurants about 30 percent higher. Overall, excluding rent, London costs about 44 percent more; including rent, about 37 percent more.

Read the school line twice, because it is the one that decides family moves. The gap between Dh65,349 and Dh128,760 per child per year is roughly Dh63,000. For two children that is about Dh127,000 a year of after tax money in a country where there is no income tax to pay on the earnings that fund it. That single line frequently outweighs the salary difference people agonise over.

Two honest caveats. Dubai rents rose steeply between 2022 and 2024 before moderating, so the gap is narrower than it was three years ago, and the direction of travel is not permanently in Dubai's favour. And a Dubai household typically runs a car where a London household may not, which claws back part of the transport advantage. I wrote about what ownership really costs once you include the charges nobody quotes in the real cost of service charges.

Source: Numbeo city comparison, Dubai against London, accessed July 2026.

The wealth migration story, in full

The relocation of ordinary professionals is one story. The relocation of capital is a different and much sharper one, and it is where the UAE's lead is not arguable.

Henley & Partners' Private Wealth Migration Report put the UAE first in the world for 2025, with a net inflow of 9,800 millionaires. The United States was second at about 7,500. In the same year the United Kingdom recorded a net outflow of about 16,500 millionaires, the largest of any country and more than double China's outflow of about 7,800. A record 142,000 millionaires moved country that year. Dubai alone now hosts more than 81,200 resident millionaires.

The 2026 edition changed the framing from counting people to scoring jurisdictions, and the ranking is worth reading closely:

The UAE scoring highest, and doing so despite the regional tension that shaped the Euronews survey, is the answer to why it keeps winning this competition:

• **Tax.** Zero personal income tax, no capital gains tax on property, no inheritance tax. Singapore taxes income progressively. Switzerland's cantonal system is competitive but not zero. The United States taxes its citizens wherever they live, which is the single biggest structural disadvantage in the table.
• **Access.** A residence route that a buyer can actually complete in weeks, without a decade long naturalisation queue.
• **Speed and certainty of property transfer.** Title moves in days, and the register is digital.
• **Position.** Roughly seven hours from most of Europe, and a hub airline network that makes the family visit practical rather than aspirational.

Henley also reported a 41 percent rise in enquiries from UAE based individuals between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, and a 29 percent rise in applications for alternative residence. Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways and I would rather give you the honest version: people who live here are also buying optionality elsewhere. Henley's own characterisation is diversification, not exodus. Wealthy people collect residences the way they collect currencies.

The UK detail in that report is the most striking single line: British citizens now make up about half of UK originated applications for alternative residence, against 8 percent in 2018.

Source: Henley & Partners Private Wealth Migration Report 2025 and 2026.

What the losing countries are doing about it

If people and capital are leaving Spain, Canada and the UK, the obvious question is what those governments are doing. The short answer is that the responses are mostly aimed at the symptom rather than the exit.

**The United Kingdom** abolished the remittance basis non domicile regime on 6 April 2025 and replaced domicile with residence as the test for worldwide income, gains and estates. This is the policy most directly linked to the record millionaire outflow. It is worth noting that the evidence is genuinely contested: HM Revenue and Customs data reported by the Financial Times suggests departures are running in line with or below official forecasts, so the exodus may be smaller than the louder headlines claim. What is not contested is the direction, and the fact that no counter offer has been introduced.

**Spain** has focused on talent retention rather than tax competition. The Ramón y Cajal research programme received a record allocation of 240 million euros for 2026, an increase of about 54 percent on the combined 2025 funds, aimed at bringing researchers back and keeping them. It is a serious policy, but it addresses the academic slice of the outflow, not the salary and housing gap that drives the rest of it.

**Canada** has responded on the intake side rather than the exit side. The 2026 to 2028 plan holds permanent residents at 380,000 a year and cuts new temporary foreign workers to 230,000 in 2026 from 367,750 in 2025, with a target of bringing temporary residents below 5 percent of the population. That is a housing pressure response. Nothing in it addresses why 106,134 Canadians left in a single year.

The pattern across all three: managing who arrives, funding niches, and leaving the tax and cost equation that drives departures untouched. That is why the flow continues.

The visa reality: how you would actually stay

This is where most coverage waves its hands. The mechanics are specific.

**The 10 year Golden Visa, property route.** The threshold is Dh2 million of property by Dubai Land Department valuation. You may combine properties to reach it, provided each is freehold and registered to you. Two people co buying one Dh3 million apartment do not each qualify; the share must independently meet the threshold. Since February 2026 the old 50 percent payment rule is gone, so mortgaged and off plan units qualify on the DLD valuation alone. I covered the aggregation change and who it genuinely helps in the Golden Visa threshold update.

**The 2 year property investor visa.** Since April 2026 a sole owner can obtain a renewable two year investor visa with no minimum property value; joint owners need at least Dh400,000 each. This is the practical entry point that gets missed in most articles, and for many buyers it is the sensible first step rather than stretching to Dh2 million.

**The 10 year routes that have nothing to do with property.** Skilled professionals, specialists, scientists, senior executives, entrepreneurs and investors in accredited businesses qualify on their own merits. If you are being recruited into the UAE, your employer may sponsor a route that costs you no capital at all.

**Cost and timing.** The federal ICP schedule is modest: about Dh100 for the application, Dh100 per year of residence, and a Dh100 smart services fee, plus Dh500 for in country status adjustment where it applies. In practice the property investor route lands around Dh9,700 to Dh10,250 all in, because DLD charges sit on top. Health insurance is mandatory and additional. Pre approval typically issues within 48 hours to 7 days, and the whole process usually completes in 2 to 4 weeks including the medical and Emirates ID stages.

What the visa does not give you: permanent residency or a path to citizenship. UAE residence is renewable, not permanent. Naturalisation exists but is exceptional and by nomination. Anyone selling you a Golden Visa as a passport is misrepresenting it.

Source: ICP and GDRFA published requirements and fee schedules, 2026.

What relocating actually looks like

A realistic sequence for a family move, based on the ones I have watched up close.

• **Months minus 3 to minus 2.** Decide the school first, not the neighbourhood. Places in the strong schools are the binding constraint, applications open early, and the school then determines which communities are viable within a tolerable commute. Reverse this order and you will move twice.
• **Month minus 2.** A scouting trip. Walk three or four communities in a single focused day rather than ten. If you are still choosing, the Be your agent tool produces a shortlist of eight communities in about twenty minutes, so the trip is spent inside buildings instead of inside a car.
• **Month minus 1.** Secure the visa route. If it is employment, your employer drives it. If it is property, complete the purchase and title transfer, then apply.
• **Week 1 to 2 on arrival.** Medical fitness test, Emirates ID biometrics, visa stamping. This is the fast part.
• **Week 2 to 4.** Bank account, which requires the Emirates ID and is the step most likely to stall; tenancy contract and Ejari registration; DEWA connection; school enrolment finalised.
• **Budget reality.** A Dubai landlord typically wants the year up front, or in one to four cheques. Arriving with a monthly rent budget and no lump sum is the single most common planning failure I see. Before you commit, run the honest comparison in the rent or buy calculator; for many arrivals renting for the first year while you learn the city is the better answer, even when buying is affordable.

The honest tradeoffs

If this article only listed advantages it would be an advertisement, so here is what people actually give up. I would rather you arrive with the right expectations than arrive disappointed.

• **The summer is genuinely hard.** From June to September, daytime highs sit in the low to mid forties with heavy humidity near the coast. Life moves indoors for four months. People who need a temperate outdoor life all year should not move here on the strength of a February visit.
• **Distance from family is real and permanent.** Roughly seven hours from most of Europe is fine for a planned holiday and useless in an emergency. Ageing parents are the single most common reason I see people move back.
• **Nothing is permanent.** Residence is renewable and tied to a qualifying condition. Sell the property or lose the job and the clock starts. That is a structurally different feeling from citizenship, and some people never get comfortable with it.
• **The cost floor rises with the lifestyle.** The tax saving is real, but Dubai is efficient at converting it into schooling, cars, travel and dining. Households that keep their European spending habits keep most of the difference; households that adopt local ones do not.
• **Rent is not fixed.** Dubai has legal caps at renewal via the RERA index, but the market moved a long way between 2022 and 2024. Budget for renewal increases rather than assuming today's rent.
• **Cultural adjustment is milder than expected, but not zero.** Dubai is genuinely cosmopolitan and English functions everywhere. Still, laws on public conduct, alcohol and speech differ from European norms, and the assumption that everything works exactly as at home is the source of most avoidable trouble.
• **The trailing spouse problem.** One partner arrives with a job. The other arrives with a visa and a network of zero. That is the hardest six months of most family moves, and it is worth planning for explicitly.

My read

The Euronews survey asked people where they might go. It is a fair question and a genuinely interesting answer, but it is not a forecast. The three countries at the top of the list share the exact problem the respondents are trying to escape, and two of them are actively managing their own outflows.

What I would watch instead is revealed preference: half a million Europeans already resident, the highest wealth mobility score in the world, the largest net millionaire inflow of any country, and the largest millionaire outflow coming from the country that supplies the UAE's single biggest European community. Add the long horizon items, including a confirmed Disney resort on Yas Island expected to open somewhere between 2030 and 2033, and the direction is not ambiguous.

None of that means everyone should move. The heat is real, the distance is real, and the impermanence is real. It means the decision deserves arithmetic rather than a headline percentage. If you want to run your own numbers before deciding anything, start with the rent or buy calculator and the mortgage calculator; if you want the market context first, my H1 2026 market report covers what prices actually did this year.