OFX provides secure and speedy international money transfers to over 300,000 people in 55 currencies at better-than-bank rates.
With expatriates accounting for about 85% of the UAEs workforce - attracted by high and tax-free professional salaries and representing over 150 nationalities - the UAE, and Dubai in particular, has become a leading source and destination of international money transfers. There are no capital controls, so it is very easy to send money to Dubai and to transfer money from Dubai. A range of providers cater to different sums and clients, from migrant worker remittances up to real estate, investment and trade.
Since 2002, foreigners have been allowed to buy, sell, lease or rent property without restriction. Buying property is one of the largest sources of private money transfer to Dubai, where most expats in the UAE live and work. Indeed, real estate is one of the largest sectors outside of oil and gas, with strong demand in recent years keeping prices elevated. Prime residential price in the emirates have risen by 29% and 71% over the past two and three years, respectively.
For residential property, before the global financial crisis, expats with a good credit rating were able to obtain a mortgage in Dubai worth up to 90% of the property value without much difficulty. Domestic banks have since tightened their lending procedures, with deposits of 20-50% of the purchase price not unusual, with some lenders requiring collateral in the form of another property. Increasingly, the bureaucracy and cost of securing a local mortgage is deterring applications. Expats buying property, whether for investment or occupation are thus likely to need to take out a mortgage in their home country and send money to Dubai, even if they have accumulated a deposit locally.
The US maintains a strong trade surplus with the UAE, with the latter importing some US$24.6bn of goods in 2013 to become the US 17th largest goods export market. By contrast, trade flows in the other direction are tiny. The UAE in 2013 was the US 65th largest supplier of goods imports, the value of which grew by 1.7% from the previous year to US$2.3bn. Excluding returned items, the largest import categories in 2012 (the latest year for which a breakdown is available), were aluminium (US$589m), fuel and crude oil (US$173m), fertilisers (US$129m) and diamonds (US$126m).
The UAEs low tax environment, liberal trade regime, deep financial sector and highly developed infrastructure have made Dubai a key regional investment hub. The business environment has steadily improved in recent years, although local investors are still generally favoured over foreign ones. Dominated by the financial and insurance sector, the stock of US foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UAE was up 33.5% from 2011 to stand at US$7.8bn in 2012, the latest data available. The US accounted for 8.2% of total FDI stocks in the UAE that year.
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