Moving to Dubai? Read this first.

March 15th, 2008
Leave your comment Posted by umar
Published in textblog

If you are thinking about moving to Dubai, these are the things you should know about about and plan for before making a decision.

Disclaimer: This is true for those who want to live in Dubai. If you plan to live in Sharjah or any other state then things change a little. Also, most of the generalizations apply to residents of Asian countries, specially Pakistan and India.

1. Your home ought to be close to your work otherwise you will spend your life in traffic.

2. Do a research of how much it costs to rent an apartment/villa around your work place. Make sure you are able to afford it.

3. Do a research of how much utility bills cost per month on the average. They vary from place to place.

4. Make sure you are going to earn enough to cover the rent, bills, food, entertainment, shopping, unknown hidden expenditures, emergency, and anything else you can think of. You will almost always exceed your allocated budget. Plan accordingly.

5. Make prior arrangements for commuting, unless you can afford a taxi every day. Talk with you coworkers to give you a ride, or be ready to use the public transport.

6. Depending upon so many factors, it can take 2 to 6 months (or more) to obtain a UAE driver’s license. Make sure you know how to go around in Dubai without a car, and expect frustrations during that time, like never being able to reach on time (that’s true even if you own a car, but somewhat controllable).

7. Have enough savings to cover you for the first three months in Dubai. Savings equal to one to two months of your expected monthly income in Dubai would generally be enough. For example if you are going to make 20,000 a month in Dubai, bring at least the same amount with you to Dubai.

8. Have enough savings to pay your house rent for the first year. That’s in addition to the savings mentioned above. In Dubai, you have to make one-year advance payment for rented property. If your employer doesn’t give you the housing allowance in advance, you got to have your own arrangements.

9. Be ready to spend money at every step. Nothing is free in Dubai. Heck, nothing is cheap in Dubai. Anything that you are not doing yourself will cost you money, lots of it.

Related posts:

  1. How would you spend $1000 in Dubai?
  2. Investment in Dubai – Real Estate
  3. Investment in Dubai – Bank Accounts
  4. Self-Service Petrol Stations in Dubai
  5. Year 2008 in review


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  • Noori
    Hi Umer, how about if one moves to Dubai as single, leave spouse behind for few months, share accommodation for few month, like you must have done it when you went abroad for studies. Do you have to have everything in one to two months or you can accrue every thing slowly?
  • Noori, Actually, you can do that. There are many people who have done that. It really depends on how much you are willing to sacrifice, and for how long.
  • Johnny, since we talking about Dubai, it obviously means local currency ie AED.
  • Johnny Bravo
    Even though the prices probably vary a lot, could you give some rough estimates for the costs involved? Maybe the costs you dealt with?

    "For example if you are going to make 20,000" umm, 20K in which currency?
  • and enough money to afford furnishing your home.
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