Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Hi all

Soon to move to Dubai - and wanted to get a feel for Rental Costs ,,,,,

I am in the lucky position of having a good housing contribution from my employer, and will be looking for a 5 bed Villa.....for c300k AED pa.

Looking at prices on the web - will landlords negotiate down on an advertised price - ie at 300,000 will I get this for 270,000 in your experience.

Thanks for your support/......

PS - I will without doubt get a number of people saying the negotiation goes the other way - having read some comments on this Forum.....

In general, rent is more negotiable than in other parts of the world. But this is only because the market is constantly changing and values have not stabilised yet.

If you are dealing witha rental agent, it will be difficult because they have their own agenda and keep the landlord out of negotiations.

If you are dealing directly with the landlord, you can try and negotiate.
But some landlords are more stuborne than others and would rather see an empty villa than lower the rent.

So its a case of suck it and see.

You have a good budget, but keep in mind that the price for the same 5 bed villa will vary a great deal and you don't want to end up paying 300k, when you could have paid 220k for an identical one down the road.

many Thanks for the Reply - yes I have seen the variation - at first I thought that it was the difference between furnished/Un, and Villas with/without a pool ...... But I was wrong there seems to be no reasoning between the same Villa at 60,000 difference in cost....

We are due over on 8th Feb and will experience first hand the Property Rental Market.

Best Regards

It varies, but I've seen quite a few villas stay on the market for 2-3 months now so don't always listen to the old estate agent stuff about having 10 people viewing it and you needing to sign immediately. Sure, if it's a nice place at a good price it probably will go quickly, but people are shopping about a bit more so do put cheeky bids in and keep a track of the apartment and (if you have time) go back a couple of weeks later with a final offer.

Mates of mine got 20% off the rent of a new 3 bed flat in Dubai Marina, flats are different to villas but you can make it happen if you dig in there.