Bangladesh Defense Forum
532 Bangladeshis own real estate in Dubai: report
A six-month-long joint investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Norwegian outlet E24 uncovered scores of convicted criminals,...
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532 Bangladeshis own real estate in Dubai: report
Staff Correspondent 17 May, 2024, 00:45
| UNB/ AP file photo.
A six-month-long joint investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Norwegian outlet E24 uncovered scores of convicted criminals, fugitives, political figures, and sanctioned individuals, including 532 Bangladeshis, owning real estate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Without providing any further details regarding their identities, the OCCRP report titled 'Dubai Unlocked' shows 532 Bangladeshi nationals owning 641 properties in Dubai, with the total value of their real estate exceeding $225 million.
According to the findings of 2022 data, assessed by economists and reporters from 74 partners in 58 countries, the number of residential properties owned by foreigners put Indians first, at 35,000 properties and 29,700 owners, with the total value of these properties estimated at $17 billion.
The OCCRP said that owners with Pakistani nationality come in second among foreigners, at 17,000 owners of 23,000 residential properties in Dubai.
In a report, the Pakistani daily Dawn said that the Gulf city is far from the only place where criminals and others have successfully stashed their wealth in luxury properties. New York City and London real estate have also been known to attract dirty money.
But experts say Dubai has a lot to offer, and not just in terms of its vast array of high-end skyscrapers and villas. One pull factor, experts say, has been the emirate's inconsistent responses to requests from foreign authorities for help arresting and extraditing fugitives.
The report came at a time when money flights to Dubai and other countries were widely discussed in Bangladesh.
Amid various discussions, in April last year, following a High Court order, the Anti-Corruption Commission initiated an inquiry into the allegation that 459 Bangladeshi nationals bought properties in Dubai illegally.
In May 2022, a US-based non-profit Center for Advanced Defense Studies published a research paper, highlighting Bangladeshis buying housing assets with money that was laundered mainly in Gulf countries.
According to the report, 459 Bangladeshis own a total of 972 residential properties in Dubai at a cost of $315 million.
Of these assets, 64 are located in the elite Dubai Marina area, and 19 in Palm Jumeirah.
Without mentioning names, the report said that at least 100 villas and less than five buildings are said to be owned by Bangladeshis in these locations.
Besides, 4–5 Bangladeshis own properties worth about $44 million there.
The OCCRP report said that Dubai has long maintained an open-door policy for foreign nationals looking to live and do business there.
It said that the emirate offers a combination of extremely favourable tax regimes, free trade zones with little regulation, a liberalised property market, low-cost residence-by-investment schemes, and, during the pandemic, low restrictions on movement.
As a result of these policies as well as a high demand for migrant workers, Dubai has become a city of foreigners: out of its more than three million inhabitants, only 8 per cent are Emiratis.
'While the Dubai Land Department both publishes detailed aggregate statistics on the real estate sector, as well as detailed micro-data on the status characteristics of specific properties, buildings, and lands in the city, it does not publish any information on foreign ownership of property, neither at the individual property level nor in aggregate,' it said.
'However, as we will describe below, we have access to several datasets at the individual property level that we use to estimate the amount of foreign-held property in the city, as well as the breakdown by each nationality, both directly (by adding up the value of properties visible in the data we have access to) and indirectly (by inferring foreign property ownership rates in areas of the city we have less data coverage for),' it added.
Staff Correspondent 17 May, 2024, 00:45
| UNB/ AP file photo.
A six-month-long joint investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Norwegian outlet E24 uncovered scores of convicted criminals, fugitives, political figures, and sanctioned individuals, including 532 Bangladeshis, owning real estate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Without providing any further details regarding their identities, the OCCRP report titled 'Dubai Unlocked' shows 532 Bangladeshi nationals owning 641 properties in Dubai, with the total value of their real estate exceeding $225 million.
According to the findings of 2022 data, assessed by economists and reporters from 74 partners in 58 countries, the number of residential properties owned by foreigners put Indians first, at 35,000 properties and 29,700 owners, with the total value of these properties estimated at $17 billion.
The OCCRP said that owners with Pakistani nationality come in second among foreigners, at 17,000 owners of 23,000 residential properties in Dubai.
In a report, the Pakistani daily Dawn said that the Gulf city is far from the only place where criminals and others have successfully stashed their wealth in luxury properties. New York City and London real estate have also been known to attract dirty money.
But experts say Dubai has a lot to offer, and not just in terms of its vast array of high-end skyscrapers and villas. One pull factor, experts say, has been the emirate's inconsistent responses to requests from foreign authorities for help arresting and extraditing fugitives.
The report came at a time when money flights to Dubai and other countries were widely discussed in Bangladesh.
Amid various discussions, in April last year, following a High Court order, the Anti-Corruption Commission initiated an inquiry into the allegation that 459 Bangladeshi nationals bought properties in Dubai illegally.
In May 2022, a US-based non-profit Center for Advanced Defense Studies published a research paper, highlighting Bangladeshis buying housing assets with money that was laundered mainly in Gulf countries.
According to the report, 459 Bangladeshis own a total of 972 residential properties in Dubai at a cost of $315 million.
Of these assets, 64 are located in the elite Dubai Marina area, and 19 in Palm Jumeirah.
Without mentioning names, the report said that at least 100 villas and less than five buildings are said to be owned by Bangladeshis in these locations.
Besides, 4–5 Bangladeshis own properties worth about $44 million there.
The OCCRP report said that Dubai has long maintained an open-door policy for foreign nationals looking to live and do business there.
It said that the emirate offers a combination of extremely favourable tax regimes, free trade zones with little regulation, a liberalised property market, low-cost residence-by-investment schemes, and, during the pandemic, low restrictions on movement.
As a result of these policies as well as a high demand for migrant workers, Dubai has become a city of foreigners: out of its more than three million inhabitants, only 8 per cent are Emiratis.
'While the Dubai Land Department both publishes detailed aggregate statistics on the real estate sector, as well as detailed micro-data on the status characteristics of specific properties, buildings, and lands in the city, it does not publish any information on foreign ownership of property, neither at the individual property level nor in aggregate,' it said.
'However, as we will describe below, we have access to several datasets at the individual property level that we use to estimate the amount of foreign-held property in the city, as well as the breakdown by each nationality, both directly (by adding up the value of properties visible in the data we have access to) and indirectly (by inferring foreign property ownership rates in areas of the city we have less data coverage for),' it added.
