Middle East and GCC Family Office Statistics 2026

The Gulf Cooperation Council covers six states: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. It is the most dynamic family office market in the world by intent, with the highest rate of planned portfolio change anywhere, and the modelled headcounts understate it badly. This page sets the regional model against the hard jurisdictional registries and the wealth base behind them, each figure with its source and year. For the global picture and the full methodology, see the main reference on family office statistics.

Key figures at a glance

Figures checked against their sources on 12 October 2026.

The modelled population

Roughly 290 single family offices operated in the Middle East in 2024 (Deloitte, 2024). This is a modelled estimate, and as the registry figures below make clear, it sits well below the jurisdictional reality.

Formation is driven by first and second generation entrepreneurial families, sovereign wealth ecosystems and inward migration of wealthy families, which the registry data below captures far better than the model.

The registries, by jurisdiction

Every major Gulf centre now runs a dedicated family office regime, and the registration data dwarfs the modelled regional count.

United Arab Emirates, Dubai (DIFC). The Dubai International Financial Centre reported about 1,289 family related entities in 2025, up from roughly 800 a year earlier, a rise of 61 percent, together with 1,115 foundations established by DIFC based families, up 66 percent (DIFC annual results, 5 February 2026). That category spans foundations, holding companies, single family offices, managing offices and private trust companies, so it is broader than a single family office count. Even so, one hub alone registers several times the number the model assigns to the entire Middle East.

United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi (ADGM). ADGM had 12,671 active licences at the end of 2025, an annual increase of 30 percent, with assets under management across the centre up 36 percent and its workforce up 51 percent, from 29,338 to 44,339 (ADGM 2025 results, as reported on 30 March 2026). Family offices are among its fastest growing constituencies, though it does not publish a standalone family office count.

Saudi Arabia. No official count or AUM figure exists for Saudi family offices. Foreign family offices operate under an investment licence from the Ministry of Investment, with Capital Market Authority oversight of fund and securities activity. The wealth base is measurable: about 348,000 US dollar millionaires at the end of 2025, up 2.6 percent (UBS Global Wealth Report 2026), and a projected net inflow of about 2,400 millionaires in 2025, the largest rise on Henley and Partners' inbound list (Henley and Partners, 24 June 2025).

Qatar (QFC). Since amendments in 2023, a family with at least 5 million US dollars in investible liquid assets can establish a single family office in the Qatar Financial Centre, incorporated as a body corporate that is not regulated serving one family (QFC Single Family Office Regulations as amended in 2023, summarised by IFC Review, 9 July 2025).

Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. These smaller centres anchor much of their private wealth in family owned conglomerates. Kuwait's sovereign fund, the Kuwait Investment Authority, founded in 1953, is the oldest sovereign wealth fund in the world.

The wealth base

The family office growth sits on an exceptional concentration of capital.

• Three GCC sovereign wealth funds each managed more than 1 trillion US dollars: Saudi Arabia's PIF at about 1.15 trillion, Abu Dhabi's ADIA at about 1.11 trillion and Kuwait's KIA at about 1.0 trillion (Global SWF rankings, July 2025).
• UBS counts about 183,000 US dollar millionaires in the UAE and 348,000 in Saudi Arabia at the end of 2025, up 3.5 and 2.6 percent on 2024 (UBS Global Wealth Report 2026). Other trackers give different UAE totals because they count residents and wealth differently.
• The UAE was projected to draw a net inflow of about 9,800 millionaires in 2025, the highest of any country, and Saudi Arabia about 2,400 (Henley and Partners, 24 June 2025).

Repositioning and allocation

About 82 percent of Middle East family offices planned to change strategic asset allocation within twelve months, the highest share of any region (UBS, 2026, stated intention).

North America remained the anchor allocation at about 50 percent, alongside meaningful exposure to Western Europe and the region itself, reflecting a hybrid approach (UBS, 2026).

Investment themes

Artificial intelligence led at about 50 percent invested, AI-enabled healthcare drew about 35 percent as a regional priority tied to development agendas, and infrastructure attracted about 30 percent (UBS, 2026).

What to keep in mind

Treat the 290 figure as a floor, not a count. The gap between it and the DIFC, ADGM, Saudi and QFC registries is partly definitional, since the model counts single family offices narrowly while the centres count all family related entities, including foundations and holding structures. Even allowing for that, the direction is unambiguous: the Gulf is forming family structures faster than any regional model has kept pace with. The sovereign fund and millionaire figures come from specialist trackers and migration reports that use their own methodologies, so read them as sourced estimates rather than audited accounts. The high rate of planned change is an intention captured in early 2026, not a realised reallocation. For a family office weighing a GCC presence, the signal that matters is direction and conviction, not the decimal.