Market

Two hundred passports

2 min readBy Ansh Virmani

Buyers from more than 200 nationalities bought property in Dubai last year. No other city comes close to that spread, and it is the single most underrated feature of the market: when one country’s buyers pause, another’s usually do not. Indians were the largest group at about 22 percent, up from 21 in 2024, with the British second. Chinese buyers returned in force at roughly 13 to 14 percent, and Russians held around 9.

Buyers by nationality, 2025, approximate share
Three groups set the tone. Two hundred set the floor.
India~22%
China~13%
Russia~9%
Brokerage-level estimates; British buyers rank second by count in most samples but no reliable share is published. The Land Department does not publish buyer nationality, so every ranking you see, including this one, is a sample.

Why the mix is a feature

Single-source markets are fragile. Vancouver learned it when Chinese capital slowed, London when Russian money left. Dubai has had both happen in the last decade and the market barely noticed, because Indian, European, Gulf and African buyers filled the gap within a quarter. A demand base this diversified behaves like an index fund rather than a single stock: it still falls in a real global downturn, but it rarely falls because of one country’s politics.

What each group tends to buy, from my desk
Different passports, different products.
IN

India

Family homes, established communities, the visa line.

End-users
UK

Britain

Yield first, Marina and Downtown apartments, often financed.

Income
CN

China

Off-plan at launch, new districts, capital growth.

Growth
RU

Russia

Prime, ready, cash. Palm and Downtown.

Safety
Generalisations, and every client is an exception. Useful only as a map of where each wave of demand tends to land.

The mix also moves with the world. Russian buying peaked in 2022 and 2023 and has settled; Chinese buying fell away during the pandemic and came back in 2025; Indian demand has grown steadily every year regardless, helped by a three-hour flight, cultural ties and the visa line. A market that is 22 percent Indian is, in practice, a market whose largest buyer group has the most reasons to stay.

One caveat

Because nationality data is sampled, be suspicious of any precise-sounding ranking, including the one above. The direction is reliable; the second decimal is not. Also remember that residents buy too: a large and growing share of demand is people who already live here, whatever their passport says.

Two hundred passports is a risk model, whatever the marketing says.

What I do with it

Buy the product with the widest buyer pool, not the one currently fashionable with one nationality. A two-bedroom in an established community can be sold to any of the four groups above. A fiftieth-floor studio in a launch corridor can be sold to one of them, on a good day.

Sources. Oliva, buyers by nationality 2026 · Benhams, who is buying in Dubai 2025 · Unique Properties, top nationality buyers 2026

Ansh Virmani
Ansh Virmani

I run The Virmani Group in Dubai and write here about the UAE market, the city, and the work. Every opinion is mine; Claude helps with the drafting. Thinking about property here? Talk to me first.