Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

I received a job offer earlier, and I need some help in assessing it. I know this topic has been addressed in the past, and I have reviewed those posts. However, every situation is different, and I thought I'd see if someone may be willing to provide some advice!

The job is with a bank and the package is:

Salary of AED 32k plus a AED 50k signing bonus
Annual bonus of up to AED 200k
One trip home a year for self + family
Loans for furniture, car, residence, etc.

Based on what I read earlier, it sounds like the salary would be sufficient if there was some form of housing allowance, but since there isn't (other than a loan for the prepayment of 6 months rent), I'm concerned.

Would this be enough for my wife and I to enjoy a comfortable life? We were hoping to rent a 2 - 3BR place in a nice area.

Thanks in advance!

Do you have kids? If not i think you can do quite well.

Good luck and welcome to Dubai,

Fayz,

Thanks for the feedback! No kids right now, but if my wife has her way, it won't be long!

I'm budgeting around AED 12k per month for a 3 BR place....does this sound reasonable? No idea where I want to live right now, but I'm planning a houehunting trip shortly and should have a better idea after that. From what I've read on these message boards, it seems like Jumeirah is a good place for younger (i.e., late 20's, early 30's) couples. Any other recommendations?

Thanks again!

U after an apartment or villa mate? Looking at around 12-15k/month.

Thanks XRW. I'm not sure about the apt. vs. villa thing. A villa wouldbe preferable, but from the classifieds I've reviewed so far, there seems to be quite a large price difference. Are there generally both available in all areas?

Both generally available but u'll find they come on the market and go off at a blink of an eye. Your best bet is to contact a reputable agent handling the area and give them a figure about 10-20k under what you're willing to spend annually and take it from there.

Thanks again XRW! You've been a tremendous help!

One more follow-up question though. I remember reading somewhere that in the UAE, the buyer (person who is renting) pays the real estate agent, as opposed to the seller (landlord). This is the opposite of North America, so I thought I'd double check. If so, is the fee due to the agent a formula of rent (e.g., 3 months rent, etc.) or a flat fee?

Thanks again!

You'll soon discover a lot of things are backwards, yes you are going to get stuck paying the 5% real estate fee (5% of yearly rent) and you are also going to be paying property taxes through your utility bill,

Hey, good to see another person from Toronto (or so I assume from your name) coming down here.

I just moved here about 2 months back and trust me, this place is great but also gets to you in many small ways. On the level, everything is very "first world" but in the background things are totally wacky.

Still, it's just one of those places where if you have enough money you can shelter yourself from all those headaches. And going by the figures you have put down there you can more than shelter yourself.

Your salary is pretty high, but because there's no allowances as such it will not get you as far as you might think initially. I'll go through the major expenses in detail.


Rent
Expect to pay anywhere from 90K - 120 K for a two bedroom apartment. 120K - 160K for a 3+ bedroom villa. The problem however is not so much the rent but rather actually having a nice place available. If you work for one of the larger MNC's they might actually have a pool of apartments that they give to their employees.

Utilities
This is where the nightmare really starts. Hopefully your company will have a "fixer" who can set all this up for you. Mine didn't so I had to go to various offices with many many many copies of my passport and passport sized photos to get anything done!

Car
The actual car, fuel and maintenance will all cost you much less than it would in Canada. for e.g. you can get a brand new Prado (what I call the Expat Car) for about 150K (less than 50K CDN which is great) or


I think you should budget to spend at least half of your salary on rent, utilities and transportation. That leaves you with 15K which might cause problems if you have kids and need to send them to school.

Of course, this is where your annual bonus kicks in and saves the day!