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Shipping tycoon John Fredriksen swaps Mayfair for Dubai as Britain’s super-rich weigh non-dom pain, wealth-tax talk and sunnier, tax-free shores.

The latest New World Wealth survey shows the UK has shed eighteen dollar-billionaires since 2023—the sharpest drop anywhere in that period. It is no statistical quirk: the Sunday Times Rich List confirms the downward swing, with Britain’s billionaire roster falling from 165 last year to 156 in 2025, the steepest single-year fall in the list’s 37-year history.

High-profile departures are giving the statistics a face. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, once ranked Britain’s ninth-richest resident, has decamped to the UAE after declaring that the country has “gone to hell.” He follows hedge-fund, property and tech fortunes who have quietly traded Knightsbridge addresses for tax-free residency in Monaco, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. Private-aviation data suggest Gulfstream traffic from Luton and Farnborough to these hubs has risen markedly since April.

Rich-list advisers cite a perfect storm. April’s abolition of the non-dom regime stripped long-term foreign residents of a perk worth millions each year, ending the ability to ring-fence overseas income. At the same time, Westminster chatter about a one-off levy on fortunes above £10 million refuses to die. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has ruled out rises in income tax, national insurance and VAT, but she has not closed the door on a wealth tax to plug an estimated £20 billion fiscal gap. With uncertainty clouding London’s financial future, some ultra-rich residents are choosing not to gamble on staying, placing their bet on more predictable tax-friendly jurisdictions abroad.

Lifestyle arbitrage is accelerating the trend. Dubai, Zürich and Singapore offer zero capital-gains tax, year-round sunshine and private-airport convenience that Mayfair cannot match, even after oligarch crack-downs cooled London’s super-prime property scene. Estate agents in the Gulf report a spike in inquiries from British passport-holders seeking “Plan B” flats with mooring rights, while Monaco’s annual yacht-berth lottery saw a 14 per cent jump in UK applicants.

Yet the picture is not all one-way traffic. A Guardian briefing notes that departures grab headlines precisely because they are exceptions; the majority of Britain’s billionaire population still call Chelsea or the Cotswolds home and continue to invest locally. Market rebounds since last autumn have repaired portfolios, and London retains unrivalled liquidity for art, hedge-fund talent and pre-IPO capital. Westminster’s autumn statement will decide whether the exodus remains a headline ripple or swells into a permanent drain.

For now, helicopters still thrum above Kensington rooftops, but more of them are bound for tax-friendlier skies. Whether the capital can coax its missing billions back before the fiscal books are closed may be the City’s defining question of 2025.

UK Billionaires Are Jumping Ship: 18 Have Fled in Two Years And a Wealth-Tax Storm Looms

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