When Richard and Sophy Smith left Europe for Dubai two years ago, just before the pandemic, they worried they had made a terrible mistake. They’re now so pleased with the move that they’re making it permanent. Two months ago the thirtysomething Britons spent £620,000 on a four-bedroom villa in the city, where they live with their three young children. The reason? Covid.

“Dubai has weathered the pandemic better than Europe. We feel we dodged a bullet,” says Richard, who recently co-founded a reinsurance firm in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Sophy adds: “Lockdown was only around six weeks here and it was well handled. Life for us has just carried on pretty much as normal. If there were another wave or another pandemic I know