Monaco’s Gateway To The Gulf

DUBAI’S POPULATION has grown from 3.3 million in 2020 to over 3.7 million today. By 2030, projections point toward five million. For the investors who got there early, the arithmetic has been generous. For those arriving now, the question is no longer whether Dubai works, it is whether you have the right entry point.

Monaco’s investor class has been quietly rotating into Gulf real estate for several years, drawn by yield differentials that European markets cannot approach and by the structural advantages of UAE residency in an era of shifting regulatory pressure across the continent. What has changed is the infrastructure now available to facilitate that movement, and the firms positioning themselves at the centre of it.

Lukas Kerrebijn is one of them. The 26-year-old Dutch founder of RD Dubai built his first real estate business in the Netherlands, running over 450 transactions and €375 million in property sales before regulatory tightening on rental pricing and property use effectively closed the model that had made him successful. He moved the operation to Dubai. He has not looked back.

RD Dubai’s approach is straightforward in principle and difficult to replicate in practice. Rather than placing individual clients into available units, the firm aggregates demand and enters projects at scale, purchasing entire floors, occasionally entire buildings, during initial release phases before pricing is set to the open market. Bulk acquisition at that stage yields discounts of 7 to 8 percent and payment structures unavailable to retail buyers. The firm’s acquisition of 90 units in Prestige One’s Berkeley Square project sold out within 72 hours of being offered to RD Dubai’s investor network.

The economics that underpin Monaco interest are not complicated. Dubai levies no income tax on rental returns, no capital gains tax, and no wealth tax. Net yields on well-located residential assets run between 6 and 10 percent. A UAE Golden Visa, requiring a minimum real estate investment of approximately €500,000, confers ten-year renewable residency, local banking access, and the ability to structure company ownership within the UAE. For investors already domiciled in Monaco, the appeal is less about tax displacement and more about optionality: a second jurisdiction, outside European regulatory reach, with its own financial infrastructure and an investment market still generating returns that Western cities stopped producing a decade ago.

It is worth clarifying one common misconception. UAE citizenship is not realistically attainable for foreign investors. The passport is granted only in exceptional circumstances. What is accessible, and what most of Kerrebijn’s clients are pursuing, is long-term residency through the Golden Visa programme. The distinction matters less than it might appear; the residency route provides most of the practical benefits that investors are actually seeking.

Kerrebijn is cautious about the near term. Dubai’s rapid appreciation cycle is slowing, he argues, and that is not necessarily unwelcome. “Capital appreciation is decelerating, which in my view is not a bad thing. It means investors have to be more selective, and that is exactly where access and scale make the difference.”

There is also the matter of regional uncertainty, which has introduced hesitation into parts of the market: sellers holding price levels, buyers pausing. Kerrebijn’s read is that Dubai has historically absorbed periods of regional instability by attracting capital rather than losing it, and that near-term softness is more likely to produce entry opportunities than sustained damage. His current focus remains concentrated on waterfront submarkets: Palm Jumeirah, Emaar Beachfront, Dubai Islands. The logic is liquidity. Waterfront assets attract a broad international buyer base, which matters not at the point of purchase but at the point of exit. In a market where some districts face meaningful supply pressure as 2026 handovers arrive, exit liquidity is the variable that separates the defensible position from the exposed one.

The client profile making this move is recognisable. European entrepreneurs post-exit, family offices diversifying geographically, investors in private equity and digital assets, trading professionals drawn by Dubai’s time zone position between Europe and Asia. The lifestyle dimension is harder to quantify but relevant to all of them. Dubai’s winter season runs at 24 to 30 degrees and offers a hospitality infrastructure calibrated to the same income bracket as Monaco. The Principality’s residents increasingly treat the two cities not as alternatives but as complements: Monaco for summer, Dubai for winter, with a residency structure that accommodates both without requiring either to be abandoned. The UAE does not require continuous physical presence to maintain Golden Visa status, which makes it particularly suited to individuals who divide their time across multiple locations as a matter of course.

RD Dubai’s advisory arm extends beyond property acquisition into company formation, banking introduction, visa processing, tax structuring, and property management. It is a full-service model designed to reduce the friction that has historically made foreign real estate ownership more administratively burdensome than the yield justified. Whether that model eventually includes a formal Monaco presence is a question Kerrebijn answers carefully. The market is clearly there. The structure, he says, would need to be right.

By Alexander Agafiev

Editor of Features

Alexander Agafiev is a features editor on The Monegasque™ editorial team, covering high-profile difference-makers among Monaco residents. He is a former senior contributor to Forbes Monaco and is currently studying Business Management at the International University of Monaco.