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There are a lot of questions about cost of living/salaries on this forum, but obviously there are vast differences in people's age, experience, qualifications and expectations. In other words, no standard benchmark.

A lot of the questions come from people moving from the UK, so I'd be interested to know people's opinions on the cost of living in Dubai compared with the UK (particularly London). In other words, if you are paid £XX,000 a year (gross) in the UK, how much do you need to earn in Dubai to maintain the same standard of living? More? Less? The same?

I've put this to a few people in Dubai and opinions seem to vary enormously, from people who think that you can earn less or the same in Dubai and have a better standard of living (because of the tax situation, relatively cheap childcare etc), to those - particularly more recent arrivals - who think that you need 10-20 per cent more than your UK salary to maintain the same standard (mainly because of the rent situation).

Any thoughts?

I haven't been living in UK, but just to give a thought that to compare one and the other, it's not only a matter of nominal of the salary (xxx/year) and taxes. We need to break down first in details such as meals, accommodation, transportation, school, entertainment, home furnishing, etc.

"How much you can save in the end" that is ultimate question before we decide whether to move out or not, whether living in one country is better than the other.

jayzed wrote:There are a lot of questions about cost of living/salaries on this forum, but obviously there are vast differences in people's age, experience, qualifications and expectations. In other words, no standard benchmark.

A lot of the questions come from people moving from the UK, so I'd be interested to know people's opinions on the cost of living in Dubai compared with the UK (particularly London). In other words, if you are paid £XX,000 a year (gross) in the UK, how much do you need to earn in Dubai to maintain the same standard of living? More? Less? The same?

I've put this to a few people in Dubai and opinions seem to vary enormously, from people who think that you can earn less or the same in Dubai and have a better standard of living (because of the tax situation, relatively cheap childcare etc), to those - particularly more recent arrivals - who think that you need 10-20 per cent more than your UK salary to maintain the same standard (mainly because of the rent situation).

Any thoughts?

Good question, I'm sure if youv'e read through some of the similar postings it would probably confuse you even more. There is also no accurate cost-of-living index for Dubai, I'm sure you'd find a couple of figures posted here and there, but most of them have to be taken with a pinch of salt. My advice would be to take your current expenses and income put it into a spread sheet, then either through existing posts or gleaned information fill in the corrosponding figures if you were positioned in Dubai. You would need to use a fairly current exchange rate, as the UAE Dirham is fixed against the US Dollar - so this would fluctuate. On the basis of this then see what the corrosponding percentaged based contributions are for each item (or sub-group of items). For example in the UK 18% of your salary goes towards your mortage and in Dubai 27% goes to a mortage or rental.

This way you would be able to get a good idea of how they stand by comparision. Remember of course the tax issue, but also factor in "un seen expenses" which you have in Dubai, of which there are quiet a number. Also look at setting out a seperate budget for "start-up" costs, rental deposits, electrical, water and phone deposits etc..

I'm not sure what the governement inflation figure is, probably quiet low, but in real terms the cost-of-living increases I would say you looking at about somewhere between 8 and 12% per annum (in Dubai). Probably closer to 12%

hope this helps