
Henley & Partners consultancy has disclosed its Global Residence and Citizenship Programs (GRCP) 2016 report, according to which the United Arab Emirates took the 13th place in this rating having gained two positions in a year.
According to the report, the UAE remains the most attractive residence destination for expatriates from the Middle East and North Africa and even overrates Monaco, the global luxury location number one.
Marco Gantenbein, managing partner of Henley & Partners in the Middle East, said: "Globally and particularly in the MENA region, the UAE continues to be a leading and preferred destination for residence and ranks very highly in our annual indexes.
"This year, the UAE has been able to move up two spots from last year's ranking, especially because it scores well on some of the residence benchmark indicators including reputation, quality of life, tax, processing time and quality of processing."
In the global ranking, the highest number of points (80 of 100) was awarded to the Portugal's Golden Residence Permit Program as the best world’s residence-by-investments program, followed by Belgium with 78 points, and Australia with 77 points.
And as for the internal rating, Dubai stays the most popular destination of all the emirates among expats and investors, largely because of the opportunities for investment in real estate. Here, rental income is considered to be one of the highest in the world and can reach up to 20% per annum. Besides, Dubai gradually strengthens its importance on the world stage as the center of economic, social and cultural life of the region. Also, the emirate’s gaining even greater prestige at the global arena due to the city's development in the long term ahead of World Expo 2020.