Britain likely to lose nearly one in six millionaires by 2028, report says

Britain is likely to lose nearly one in six of its US dollar millionaires by 2028, but their number is set to grow in other countries including the United States and surge in Taiwan, according to a report published on Wednesday.

The UBS Global Wealth Report for 2024 forecast the number of dollar millionaires in Britain would fall by 17 per cent to 2,542,464 in 2028 from 3,061,553 last year. It also forecast a four per cent fall in the Netherlands, to 1,179,328 from 1,231,625.

Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, said the shift away from Britain partly reflected the fact that, with the third highest number of millionaires, its figure was currently "disproportionately high".

"You have obviously seen in the UK over the last few years, as you have seen in other countries, implications arising from sanctions against Russia," he told a press conference.

Donovan said Britain's decision to scrap its "non-dom" status — which lets wealthy, often foreign residents avoid tax on overseas income — had also had a "small effect".

"The non-indigenous millionaire population, the global population, which is constantly shifting, will be looking for low tax locations all of the time," he said, adding this was "not a function of UK policies per se" but reflected the "pull factors" of other countries, pointing to Dubai and Singapore.

British real estate group Winkworth said separately on Wednesday that demand for high-end properties had been dented by tax policies targeting wealthy individuals and a proposal by the new Labour government to tax private schools.

The UBS report forecast the total of dollar millionaires in the United States would rise by 16 per cent by 2028, in Germany by 14 per cent, in France also by 16 per cent, in Japan by 28 per cent, in Spain by 12 per cent and in Italy by nine per cent.

Asia-Pacific had, however, also seen the sharpest increase in debt, the report said. Total debt in the region was up by over 192 per cent since 2008, more than 20 times the growth in EMEA and almost four times the rise for the Americas.