Who Owns Offshore Real Estate? Evidence from Dubai

We use novel leaked microdata to study offshore real estate in Dubai, a fast-growing tax haven. We find that the non-resident ownership share of residential real estate grew from nearly zero in 2005 to 30% ($68 billion) in 2019, a share much larger than other large global cities. We then go on to show that offshore real estate displays a strong gravity relationship and is more frequently owned at the upper end of the wealth distribution. Finally, we document that both tax evasion (with an 80% evasion rate) and sanctions driven capital flight are important motives for owning offshore real estate.