Qatari respondents, who participated in the survey, expressed a positive outlook for the real estate sector with another 100 percent stating that real estate would be a safe investment over the next 12 months.

The report, Risk and Rules: The Role of Control in Financial Decision Making, is based on a global survey of more than 2,000 HNWIs, and provides an in-depth examination of wealthy investors from a behavioral finance perspective.

“Qatari investors distinguish themselves among their peers by their enthusiasm for investments in real estate,” said Khurram Jafree, head of investment advisory, Barclays Wealth MENA.

“This strategy must have rewarded them as they show the greatest contentment with their financial situation,” he added.

In addition to considering the different financial personality traits that exist amongst wealthy investors, the report shows their views on nine main asset groups: Real estate; cash; alternative strategies (long/short funds, arbitrage etc); equities from both developed and emerging markets; bonds from developed governments, blue-chip corporations and high yield/emerging markets; and commodities.

Forty-three percent of Qatari investors believe that investment in cash is risky, while 24 percent see cash as safe. Less than a third (32 percent) of those surveyed currently hold cash investments.

Qatari HNWIs also demonstrated ambiguous sentiments toward investment in alternative strategies. Nearly half (42 percent) believe they are neither risky nor safe, 15.7 percent perceive them to be risky while 37 percent take the complete opposite view and think they are safe.

Equities further highlight mixed investment opinions among Qatari investors — 39 percent of respondents find investments in emerging market equities risky, yet almost exactly the same proportion (35 percent) find them safe. There is, however, a greater difference when it comes to developed market equities, as a clear majority (62.7 percent) of respondents considers them a safe investment option for their portfolio. Investments in developed government bonds are considered safe by over half of the investors (55 percent).

Corporate and investment grade bonds are also considered safe by 53 percent of those surveyed, while only 10 percent view them as risky. High yield and emerging market bonds are considered safe by a much lower proportion of investors (33 percent).

With no respondents viewing commodities as very risky and less than 14 percent of them seeing this asset class as quite risky, Qatari investors show more confidence in commodities than any other markets in the world. Qatari investors do not see commodities as particularly riskier than the average risk carried by all asset classes. Forty-three percent of investors have commodities in their portfolio, making them the second most popular asset class after real estate, the country’s favored investment.

Jafree added: “As the report clearly illustrates, there are considerable differences among wealthy investors in Qatar and between Qatari investors and their counterparts in the region and the world. This is a timely reminder, if one was needed, that the wealth management industry needs to tailor its services at the individual level and that one-size fits-all approaches do not work.”

Jafree said the considerable amount of data and insights in the report would allow Barclays Wealth to remain at the forefront of the wealth management sector and further capitalize on our extensive experience in dealing with high net worth individuals, in Qatar, in the Middle East and the world.