bluejellymoon

I may be moving with my family to Dubai and have no idea where to start looking for a villa or school for my kids who are both under 8.
Could anyone advice me on where most expats tend to live or is everyone very scattered?
Thanks!!

Face81

Hi BJM. Welcome to the forum.

To answer that question, you would need to look at your budget for accomodation. Once you have that sorted, you can sonsider the various areas across Dubai.

Its not that expats are expected to live in certain areas, but as with most communities, people tend to flock to where there are other expats, so yeah, there are certain areas where the population density of expats is higher than other areas.

Some of these areas are... Jumeirah 1, 2, 3, Umm Suqeim 1, 2, Al Suffouh, Al Barsha 1, 2, Safa, Dubai Marina, The Meadows, The Hills, The Springs, The Lakes, The Greens, Mirdiff, The Green Community, Bur Dubai (behind Bur Juman).

I will let the others suggest more areas for you, incase I have forgotten any.

Hope that helps.

Zannie

Hiya Blue and welcome to the Forum

We live in the Springs which is in an district called Emirate Hills which is made up of several areas called The Meadows, The Lakes, Emirate Hills, The Greens (which are apartments) and of course the Springs. It is a huge new development of villas and apartments just off the Sheikh Zayed Road by interchange five (opposite Internet and Media Cities - ideal area to live if you work here as my husband does!). This area has new schools and wonderful facilities (most of which will be open by the end on this year). It is very residential and ideal for families. If you look on the Emaar website it will describe this area and the type of villas available. We rent an end three bedroom villa with a decent size garden for 80K (dhs) per year, and have the use of an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts (which are free to residents), just over the way. Also it is very easy to get to downtown Dubai from here to.

There are lots of other nice areas too, such as Jumeria and Umm Seqeim, that are great for families. As I don't have any kids yet, so sure what the best schools are in the area, but they are all pretty good here.

You will find that all these areas are a mixture of expats and locals.

Good luck

Zannie x

sassy

I don't know what country your coming from but there are plenty of schools here covering several different systems if I was you I would go to www.expatwoman.com they have a special school section with links to all the web pages. also the chatboard is great for any questions you have as its mostly expat stay at home mums that use it.

(god I will probably be shot for that)

Face81

hmmmmmmmmmmmm...............