Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Hello,

I would be grateful for any advice on whether...
- 30,000 dirhams per month is good coin?
- what would accommodation take out of this?
- is it London prices now?

Thanks for your help!

30,000 is great money. It would be better if your company offered some housing allowance and medical coverage though. If your significant other is working as well then you will definitely be fine for covering rent, car, utilities etc. Rents are expensive here now, but if you can say how big a place you are interested in maybe some of us can help give rental prices in our areas. For example, are you looking for a 1, 2, 3, 4 bedroom etc.

Matt & Gin wrote:Hello,

I would be grateful for any advice on whether...
- 30,000 dirhams per month is good coin?
- what would accommodation take out of this?
- is it London prices now?

Thanks for your help!

Its is very good mate, very good.. plenty in fact

Thanks for the reply.

My wife probably wouldn't be working at this stage. But we'll see.

Looking for a two bedroom place. Probably a villa, but a nice appartment with access to pool, gym, etc. would be considered also.

Matt

Its good money!!! Where do u plan to stay....That would also be a imp factor on the rent!!

I think it all depends on how much your wife is capable of spending in a month?

For some it is great money, but for a couple used to a reasonably high income, it may not be enough for both of you.

Matt & Gin wrote:Thanks for the reply.

My wife probably wouldn't be working at this stage. But we'll see.

Looking for a two bedroom place. Probably a villa, but a nice appartment with access to pool, gym, etc. would be considered also.

Matt

We have a 2 bedroom villa in the Springs and while we paid 85,000 last Dec., it seems the going rate is about 100,000 to 115,000 at the moment. The rents are ridiculous.

Depends on your lifestyle, where ur looking for a pad, and how big ur family is, i mean dependents. I guess 30,000 is a pretty good start. there are people around who lead a good life in 10,000 and yet end up saving money.

Its your individual perspective and living thats going to decide if its enough or not.

J

Jeevan's right. No one prior is wrong either.

AED30,000 is plentiful by any measure. That's about USD8,000 net a month. Even with accommodation considered, there'll still be more than enough left over. Suffice to say, you'll be leading a life more comfortable than the majority of expats here. If you think you will burn through all of that and some debt just to get by each month, then perhaps somewhere expectations are out of whack.

You didn't mention schooling kids. Do note that paying for (private) schooling will smart.

You're from London by any chance?

Kanelli, do you get the feeling that prices have peaked, what with the Dubai Marina apartments coming on stream soon and the many residential towers in Barsha? Another precipitous hike like that next year would probably cause an uproar like nothing ever seen before

My lease (also Springs) was renewed at AED125,000 for a 3+1 bedroom. It was about AED80,000 last year. So much for the 15% cap.

You're kidding, right? 30,000AED is what, 4300GBP a month?

I dare say you'll get by

Guilo2 wrote:Kanelli, do you get the feeling that prices have peaked, what with the Dubai Marina apartments coming on stream soon and the many residential towers in Barsha? Another precipitous hike like that next year would probably cause an uproar like nothing ever seen before

My lease (also Springs) was renewed at AED125,000 for a 3+1 bedroom. It was about AED80,000 last year. So much for the 15% cap.

Guilo2, why didn't you take them to the rent board if they charged you more than 15%? We are waiting to hear from our landlord about our renewal, and if he asks for more than the 15% he will find his ass in the rent board hearings. Also, beware any landlords trying to pass off the Emaar maintenance fees onto renters as well. The municipality fees of 5% are common, but the Emaar fees are something like 7,000 AED per year - so anyone renting or re-signing please check your contract carefully. Also, if you are renewing a contract and did not appoint any agent for that but your landlord is using one - the landlord is the one who should pay the fees for re-signing the contract (some companies charge 2.5% for renewal and 5% for the first time commission). I mean, the agent didn't find you the place - you are already living in it! The lawyer at Gulf News wrote about this and seems the law is on your side to tell the agent to stuff it if they ask for money for re-signing a new lease.

As for the prices peaking it is hard to say. More apartments are coming online than villas, so the villa prices might stay stable if the demand for those stays stable. If many decide to switch to apartment living, then the rents could definitely stabilise or drop. We can only hope

i know I'm hoping

kanelli wrote:We have a 2 bedroom villa in the Springs and while we paid 85,000 last Dec., it seems the going rate is about 100,000 to 115,000 at the moment. The rents are ridiculous.

That is so true - we are looking for a 2 bed in springs. Gulfnews has some listed for 100k - all of the agents i have called have said they are old prices (pre ramadan) and they are now going for 115k.

Quite a few folks I have spoken to a bailing out of Dubai as it's to much money for them to be paying out.

To the original posters question i would say you will be ok on that salary.

As for the so called 'rent board' it seems they are a joke (like a lot of things here). If the rent board disputes the rent hike, then the greedy landlord declares that his brother wants to move in (which means you have a month to vacate).

All in all i think this will back fire on some areas of the economy. Expats on an average professional salary will not be as attracted to relocate unless there company pays a premium to cover there rent. Eventually this will lead the companys to conclude the are other more viable countries to base in the ME region. I know for fact Egypt amongst several others are coming up from behind.

Anyway sorry to jump on the the orginal post.

Back to it..

+971xxx xxx is the number to call johnny onecheque and his overpriced apartments

The rent board has been ruling overwhelmingly in the favour of tenants. The main excuse given by landlords is "my brother is moving in", but the rent board doesn't let them get away with it. They have to have given proper notice and show intent to live there etc.

kanelli wrote:The rent board has been ruling overwhelmingly in the favour of tenants. The main excuse given by landlords is "my brother is moving in", but the rent board doesn't let them get away with it. They have to have given proper notice and show intent to live there etc.

It would seem from some people that I have spoken to, a month is the notice that is required, and following that unless you are really interested to act as watchdog then the situation just dies a death. What do you think K?

I'm not sure what you mean Sage, please clarify.

kanelli wrote:The rent board has been ruling overwhelmingly in the favour of tenants. The main excuse given by landlords is "my brother is moving in", but the rent board doesn't let them get away with it. They have to have given proper notice and show intent to live there etc.

Thats really good to hear kanelli - at least something seems to be getting done.

kanelli wrote:I'm not sure what you mean Sage, please clarify.

What I meant was unless you are will to act as a watchdog for the rent commitee, it will just die a death.
When you are moving you generally don't have time for much else anyways.
I think the Landlords have it all one way at the moment, but I also think the tide is about to turn.

Hmmmmm read from somewhere complains/cases in Sharjah w/c are like this are treated/solved/actioned very fast.

Shouldnt it be the same with Dubai?

As far as I heard, when you have a case pending with the rent board you don't have to move out. Yes, you have to keep up with all the proceedings which are done in Arabic, and you need to take some time off work to attend to everything. It is worth it in the end if you consider how many days you would need to find a new home, how many days to pack and unpack your house again, and how much money it would cost to do so. Also, you get some satisfaction from sticking it to your greedy landlord who wasn't following the rules to begin with.

Want to hear another interesting story? Some neighbours of ours bought a villa only to find out that another family had also bought the same villa. Seems the owner put the house on the market twice because he knew he could get more money. After the two families found out about each other through their children talking at school and confronted the owner, the owner rejected the first family who bought the house and kept the second because they paid more money. I'm not sure what is happening now with the situation, like what the first family is going to do about losing the villa they already bought, if they will take action against the owner and the other family, and what happens to the deposits given by both families. How can crap like this happen?