UAE experts highlight the investments that delivered strong returns in 2025, explaining key drivers behind their success and assessing whether economic trends and market conditions support continued growth next year.
UAE Experts Identify 2025’s Winning Investments and What Comes Next
In 2025, investors focused less on speculative trends and more on proven, established options. Preference shifted toward real, income-producing assets capable of navigating geopolitical risks, inflation and changing interest-rate outlooks across global markets.
Looking ahead to 2026, analysts believe priorities such as asset quality, exposure to the real economy and diversification will continue to shape strategies, even as market leadership gradually evolves.
'Recession-Proof Projects'
Many market watchers described 2025 as the “golden year,” with the precious metal ranking among the top performers as investors sought safety during global uncertainty and central banks increased their purchases. Waleed Dhaduk, CEO of Gutmann Capital, noted that assets offering protection, predictable income and links to long-term growth trends produced the most consistent gains.
Such performers ranged from gold and Dubai’s commercial property sector to downstream industries, carefully chosen emerging-market investments and even cash holdings, which benefited from higher EIBOR rates and rewarded cautious investors.
Remco Coerman, founder and CEO of Epic Edges Group, shared a similar view, observing that 2025 favored practical, essential investments over trend-driven ideas.
He pointed to sectors such as energy infrastructure, agriculture, food supply, defence-related businesses and tangible assets like land and logistics across emerging markets as top performers. According to him, investors moved away from chasing rapid growth and instead prioritized assets that remain resilient during economic stress, with greater attention given to downturn-resistant opportunities.
Technology
Technology emerged as a top-performing sector in 2025. Sumeet Gill, Vice President of Investments at The Continental Group, highlighted that companies connected to artificial intelligence achieved solid earnings growth, while Asian tech and semiconductor firms gained from strong global demand.
She added, “Outside the US, Asian technology and semiconductor companies thrived thanks to robust exports and international demand. Defence-related industries also attracted renewed attention as government spending priorities evolved.”
Amir Tabch, CEO of OFZA Fintech Virtual Asset Exchange, noted that cryptocurrencies, despite their fluctuations, continued to rank among the strongest long-term performers, alongside precious metals and select real estate markets benefiting from significant population growth. Daniel Ahmed, COO and co-founder of Fasset, agreed, saying, “While traditional investments like property, gold, and equities remain core holdings, investors are increasingly diversifying into crypto. Interest is growing not only in familiar digital assets like Bitcoin and USDT, but also in Shariah-compliant global equity indices and tangible assets such as silver, often through ETFs.”
Experts widely agree that 2025’s top-performing assets were driven by structural factors rather than speculation. Tajinder Virk, Co-Founder and CEO of Finvasia Group, identified three key influences that outweighed conventional fundamentals:
“First, geopolitical risks and currency hedging bolstered demand for precious metals. Second, equity gains were concentrated in themes like AI and infrastructure-linked capital spending, rather than broad economic growth. Third, structural factors in the UAE—such as population inflows, business relocations, lifestyle migration, and capital formation—strengthened liquidity and resilience in the property sector.”
2026 Predictions
Looking toward 2026, the outlook is cautiously optimistic. Sumeet Gill notes that investors are likely to reward companies and asset classes with strong, sustainable cash flows and sensible valuations, rather than relying on pure optimism. Geographic diversification, careful valuation, and awareness of policy and political risks will take priority over chasing short-term trends.
Waleed Dhaduk predicts that disciplined investment strategies will lead the way, with preferences for Dubai’s Grade A office properties, investment-grade bonds and sukuk, high-quality global equities, and gold. Remco Coerman expects growing attention on food security, energy infrastructure, and strategic commodities—assets that perform independently of low-interest-rate environments or market sentiment.
Some experts foresee selective rotations rather than a complete market shift. Amir Tabch anticipates renewed strength in emerging-market equities and digital assets as regulations become clearer and institutional involvement expands. Gill emphasizes that sustainable cash flows and realistic valuations will increasingly drive market rewards.
For UAE investors, diversification remains key. While Dubai’s real estate and infrastructure-linked sectors continue to show solid fundamentals, specialists highlight the need to balance local investments with global exposure, including precious metals, credit, emerging markets, and digital assets.
Tajinder Virk adds that digital-asset investments should focus on regulated, infrastructure-driven areas such as tokenisation, compliant platforms, and settlement initiatives aligned with UAE rules.
The overarching takeaway from 2025 is that careful allocation and risk management outweigh chasing the previous year’s top performers. In 2026, the assets most likely to excel will be those that maintain value under more challenging market conditions.
