Crash

Hi everyone my first post, though I have been reading BE for some time. My question is, has anyone been able to negotiate better rental rates on villas in some of the more popular expat communities? I recall reading in the Property Crash thread that some people were getting substantial discounts on properties so long as they signed a full price contract, just wondering if this may also be happening with rental units? Also, I have been checking the various adverts (Gulf News, Khaleej Times, Dubizzle), and it appears that there are many rentals available and it also appears that some of these rentals have been on the market for some time.

I have some interviews lined up next month and hopefully will be able to get a first hand view of the rental market. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Eeyore

I'd be surprised if anyone's offering any significant rental discounts yet, especially not on villas. Demand is still ahead of supply and will remain so until roughly this time next year, so landlords who own places in the popular areas still have a lot of leverage, should they choose to employ it.

Rental discounting will only start happening in earnest once the market starts getting flooded with new properties and landlords have to start competing with each other to get tenants into *their* property rather than any of the identical hundred others in the same development.

There's obviously no harm in trying your luck, but I really wouldn't expect many villa-owning landlords to be open to negotiation, because they know that if you don't pay what they want, another new expat will. You might be able to chip something off if you undertake to pay in a single cheque, though.

Madam Medusa

I have to say the only negotiation I've heard of over rents is landlords negotiating upwards at the last minute because they've got a better offer from someone else! You will be very lucky if you manage to negotiate downwards...so good luck

MM, xx