Wealthy Chinese turn from Singapore to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for family offices

An increasing number of wealthy Chinese nationals are establishing family offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as Singapore tightens its immigration and regulatory frameworks, according to a report by the Financial Times on 9 November 2025.

Private bankers and advisers to ultra-rich clients told the FT that enquiries from Chinese nationals seeking to relocate to the Gulf have surged over the past year.

Establishing a family office can facilitate residency or citizenship in these jurisdictions, making the UAE particularly attractive for those seeking stability and favourable tax regimes.

Mike Tan, Standard Chartered’s Singapore-based global head of wealth planning and family advisory, said enquiries about Dubai from East Asian clients had “surged” over the past year.

He noted that the UAE’s golden visa — a 10-year residency programme for investors, skilled professionals, and their families — is “very attractive, and stable and benign from a tax perspective.”

According to official UAE figures, authorities issued nearly 80,000 golden visas in 2022, a significant rise from 47,000 the previous year.

The number of family-related entities registered in Dubai’s offshore financial centre also climbed to 1,000 by mid-2025, compared with 800 at the end of 2024 and 600 in 2023.

While no nationality breakdown is provided, advisers attribute much of the growth to Chinese clients.

Prashant Tandon, managing director of Lighthouse Canton’s UAE division, said the influx of wealthy Chinese investors has even led to a shortage of Mandarin-speaking financial professionals in the region.

He observed that most of the movement is among individuals with assets of US$50 million to US$200 million, typically entrepreneurial families under business pressure in mainland China or Hong Kong.

Yann Mrazek, managing partner of M/HQ, which assists in setting up family office structures in the Gulf, said some Chinese families have sold Singapore real estate to reinvest in the UAE.

He added that strict COVID-19 lockdowns in Asia initially sparked interest in Gulf hubs.

Singapore, long a magnet for wealthy Asians, has seen its appeal tempered by stricter immigration controls.

Although family offices offer a pathway to employment passes, obtaining permanent residency or citizenship has become significantly more difficult.

According to the Population in Brief 2025 report, Singapore granted 22,766 citizenships in 2024 — the highest number on record.

Some immigration consultants told FT that the approval rate for applications can be as low as 8.25 per cent.

The shift is also partly driven by reputational and regulatory factors.

Singapore has tightened scrutiny following a major money-laundering scandal involving individuals linked to a group from China’s Fujian province.

This has made regulators more cautious about inflows from high-risk sources, especially in sectors like cryptocurrency.

Kevin Teng, chief executive of Wrise Private Singapore, noted that in the digital asset sector, “clients are increasingly going to the Middle East.”

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has already licensed 39 cryptocurrency companies, whereas the Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued 36 digital payment licences and recently intensified its clampdown on unlicensed exchanges.

Teng added that differences in regulatory risk appetite have widened: “Singapore is being a bit more risk averse, certainly compared to Dubai.”

Despite this shift, Singapore remains a dominant hub for family offices, with more than 2,000 registered entities as of 2024 — a 43 per cent increase from the previous year.

Yet industry insiders acknowledge that many were established more for status than functionality.

“For a while, people were setting up family offices as a status symbol in Singapore — if your friend had one, you should have one too,” Teng said.

While the UAE still lags behind Singapore in institutional infrastructure and experience, the momentum is clearly moving Gulf-ward.

As family offices multiply and regulatory frameworks mature, Dubai and Abu Dhabi appear poised to become Asia’s alternative wealth management magnets.