Buying Bullion In Dubai

Where can I buy gold bullion in Dubai?

It’s hardly surprising Dubai has become known as the City Of Gold. Dubai is the gold trading centre of the United Arab Emirates and contains more gold refineries, bullion investment companies, large and small-scale bullion dealers, gold coin and jewellery traders per square mile than anywhere else on earth.

The question isn’t so much where can I buy gold bullion in Dubai as what type of bullion investor am I?

Buying Bullion in Dubai

At the time of writing Bullion Directory lists 70 Dubai-based bullion dealers, covering everything from international refiners and bullion mints to small independent outlets within one of Dubai’s gold souqs.

If your budget is in the sub-$5000 range you’ll get the best attention at a smaller dealer and thankfully all Dubai’s dealers stick to nationally-set pricing for precious metals for stock bullion – although premiums (sometimes a maker’s fee) may be added to this.

Premiums tend to be very low in comparison to Western prices, particularly on locally-produced bullion bars.

For larger investments it is typical to go to one of the larger dealers or gold investment houses. Many of the local producers, such as Kaloti have a retail presence in the gold souks with others being located in Dubai’s business district in JLT (Jumeirah Lake Towers) – where the DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre) is also located.

Digital trading of bullion is also possible through a number of Dubai’s newer bullion dealers taking advantage of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX)

Dubai Bullion Dealers

The following are some of Dubai’s best known bullion dealers: (see the full dealer list)
 

Buying Gold In The Gold Souks

The so-called New Gold Souk is located on Al Mia Road, Al Raffa whilst Dubai’s third gold “souk”, Dubai Gold & Diamond Park is on Sheik Zayed Road in the Al Quoz Industrial Area 3.

Major UAE gold refineries and bullion producers listed in Bullion.Directory include:
 

Buying Bullion in Dubai – The Risks

Up until recently, the only real problem to be on the look out for in Dubai was counterfeit gold. Although relatively rare given the huge turnover and tough stance of the Dubai authorities a few fake bullion bars and coins do still sneak through the cracks, so as with buying gold anywhere we’d advise to be vigilant and carry out even the most basic of testing where possible.

We say recently because even the biggest names in gold bullion can fail suddenly – and in December 2015 that’s exactly what happened in the Dubai bullion market.

It’s already happened recently in the USA with first Tulving and then Merit Gold going out of business – and now it has happened in Dubai.

December saw the mostly unexpected collapse of gold dealer giants Gold.ae along with an alleged $25m in client funds. Although the authorities claim to be doing everything within their powers to get clients their money back and there are a number of civil suits being brought against Gold AE management, it’s looking increasingly likely that most of the money is gone.

So we return to the same advice we give in all gold marketplaces and in all countries. When it comes to buying gold TAKE DELIVERY.

If you absolutely must build up large digital bullion accounts in Dubai, or large Dubai-based allocated bullion accounts, do so at MULTIPLE locations to reduce, spread and mitigate risk.