Hi mates thinking of moving to Riyadh and need help from seniors in the region. Is it worth - can I survive and save some decent money?

I am an IT Consultant by profession.

Family of three :- self wife and Child aged 10

Now offer I have is
Annual Salary 370 K SAR
Housing 115K SAR
Transport 45K SAR
Full medical insurance for family
80% of school fees paid
Annual flights for family 30 days paid vacation

Hi mates thinking of moving to Riyadh and need help from seniors in the region. Is it worth - can I survive and save some decent money?

I am an IT Consultant by profession.

Family of three :- self wife and Child aged 10

Now offer I have is
Annual Salary 370 K SAR
Housing 115K SAR
Transport 45K SAR
Full medical insurance for family
80% of school fees paid
Annual flights for family 30 days paid vacation

I personally wouldn't go to KSA for that offer although I'm sure its enough to survive and save a reasonable amount.

Hi Mogs thanks for reply was wondering do you think I am going in for a low package. What is acceptable package??

'80% of school fees paid' - check that it covers the British school which is the best and its 50 k sar per year and not 80% of fees for some shite school...

Assuming salary is ok for your profession, I would expect housing and schooling to be 100% covered in addition to my salary in KSA.

I have no idea on housing costs in KSA, but I assume 115k will not be enough to cover a small villa, or 2-bed apartment in KSA.

80% school fee is for British School and will try and go back to them regarding housing allowance and see what they say - as they say you never know till you ask.

you'll be able to save on 370k a year - food/living is cheap and there's not much to waste money on! But personally I would not come to KSA without something like a 3x net salary increase or for strong career reasons.

45k transport is fine, you can buy a small car outright for that or get a good new toyota SUV for 110k-150k and it'll only lose 10% per year depreciation. you can also rent a small car for 2000 sar per month.

Your flight allowance is a bit low - most people leave every 1/2 months for short trips to avoid going stir crazy. But pick your battles on the negotiations (flights are cheap).

My other tips - get good UK tax advice. And prepare to be here by yourself for the first 2-3 months while you sort out iqamas (residence permits) for your family who will then be able to join you. Your first 3 (6?) months are probationary and you can be fired without any notice or warning if things go bad and have to leave immediately (it does happen).

I thought 115k sar was the cost of a single person in a decent compound.......

All package has not changed as they have specific grade wise pay it seems.

In terms of package comparison I am earning £72K Gross per year here in the UK.

I am really worried about housing as that's the key, do not want to end up in a compound full of non westerners as my housing budget is just 115K SAR.
Any recommendations.

Most compounds will have non westerners, lot of Lebanese etc around. Maybe with that attitude you should rethink travelling abroad.

BTW ping me when you're in Riyadh.

I have been here for some time, so don't mind giving you a background, once you're here and settled down a bit.

I grew up in Swansea - went to Ffynonne and Olchfa!

Swansea1978 thanks mate!!

Btw my son goes to Oakleigh House - primary branch of Ffynnone - small world 😃

I have no issues with non westerners but would be good to live in a community which is relatively westerners - if you know what I mean.

The housing allowance is rubbish, you really need to negotiate that up a bit. Most of the compounds will have a good mix, not just western. My compound has some British, some Egyptian, some Korean etc. There really is no such thing as a western compound.