Dubai Forums Dubai Discussions Dubai General Chat

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if you could offer some advice? Don't know Dubai too well. I'm moving over from the UK at end of July.

I've got a choice of 2 places for accommodation, both pretty much the same price. I'm sharing with other people and have found a room in one of the towers on Shk Zayed road which I like.

The other place is a room in a villa, again shared with others. This place is mighty appealing too. The villa in Jumeirah 1 near Spinneys

I'm not planning on getting a car for the first few months so I'll be doing taxis. Will need to get to my office, opposite jumierah beach hotel, daily too. Just trying to figure out where will be the best location taking travel, taxi availability, traffic and nearby facilities and the like into account.

Please, someone help me!

Ah yes, could anyone tell me if my UK XBox360 will work in Dubai too? Trying to figure out if it's worth the extra weight on th plane.

depends on which end shk zayed road... trade centre end will kill you with taxi fare every month (unless your employer is going to pick up the bill), if its further up shk Z - marina area for example then it would be ideal.

problem with room rental in villas especially near spinneys is the annual increase in rents - it may not be an issue to you if you stayed for a year, but if your were intending on staying in the same room for the duration of your contract then it may. places which were going for 120k p.a. 4 years ago (in the area) are now being rented out for 500k per year.

Wow, 500K! Wish I'd bought somewhere there a few years ago!

Not sure which end of Shk zayed road it's on. Will check it out, cheers.
Trying to find somewhere up by the marina too. I heard that's the place to be. Would you agree?

a few years ago the lower end of shk Z (closer to interchange 1) was the place to be, it was more or less in the centre of things. now with the expansion out along shk Z toward abu dhabi the marina/ greens/ meadows is the approximate centre. however with the burj dubai projects coming up in the next 12 - 18 months you may find that the "centre" of focus shift back to that area... although i think the traffic is going to be a serious problem there as they have not left enough road corridors for expansion.

Thanks for that!
So it's all much of a muchness really. Yeah, I think you're right about the traffic.

Still haven't got anything sorted yet though. It seems very difficult to arrange renting somewhere from here in the UK. Had one lettting agent say he needed a deposit to reserve my place. That sounded OK, but then he said he couldn't take credit card & wanted me to transfer money to an account over the internet. Now that just sounded too dodgy for my liking!!

don't sweat about the accomodation. there is PLENTY available.
what i would suggest is that you book yourself into a cheapish hotel for a few days when you arrive and take a little time to look for a place.

the norm here is a 3/4 month cash deposit upfront. the balance of the rental in post dated cheques. make sure that the agent gives you a legal rental agreement. if you are able to pay the full rental upfront (in cash) you can normally haggle some kind of discount.

actually with the amount of open appartments that i see around town, i would start off by trying to haggle a discount...