Although I was loving my stay in the hotel that my employer had given me, I was entitled to it only for a month. I had to find a place of my own in that time.
My favorite place to live in Dubai is Dubai Marina. I was fascinated by this magnificent housing project. Despite its high cost, I was determined to live in Dubai Marina as it was 5 minutes from Dubai Internet City.
A general rule of thumb in Dubai is that it costs you 30-35% of your yearly income on housing (which is still very high compared to rest of the world). Considering the high rents in Dubai Marina and how much I wanted to live there, I was willing to spend as much as 60% of my salary to be able to do that.
It made a lot of sense to me. I was aware of benefits of living near work, as back in Karachi I lived just 5 minutes away from work, and I was spoiled. I was able to avoid the rush hour traffic, wake up late in the mornings, and be home early after work. I wanted to have the same luxury in Dubai. And I was ready to pay the higher price.
So I started my search hoping that I will be able to find an apartment in Dubai within my budget, I mean c’mon, there gotta be one apartment for me in those 40 towers, but soon the reality hit me like a bullet.
To be continued…
Dubai Marina…Inshallah!!! Plan it out…and plan on buying a place there…a little struggle now and settled for life…then…
Good luck on your housing search and you find something good in the Marina.
Keep up the blog!
Cheers
Aaron
Best of luck in finding a good place to retire. For some reason, Dubai seemed too posh for me to live tbh. Maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to a different city n all, it’s certainly not bad in any way. I remember places having the strangest names there - for e.g., the Lulu center! LOL!
i have heard that apartments there go fast. who are all these ppl with bundles of money??? not trying to envy anyone…really. i hope to move to dubai very very soon God willing!