exeter16

Hi everyone,

I've just received an academic position offer in AD and I need honest opinion about the salary package they are offering. For now, they are offering 33,993 AED which includes housing allowance. Education allowance is an additional 50k AED per child. Other benefits include medical, relocation return flight ticket etc.

We are a family of four - two adults and two primary school aged children. Potential workplace will be right in the middle of the city, so not sure if I can get any decent, comfortable accommodation nearby? I've looked in dubizzle and propertyfinder and most nice-looking villas or apartment are in the area of Al-reem or Al-raha. Al-reef looks nice but it's so far away from workplace - not sure if I want to go through terrible traffic every morning?

Back to my question:

1) Is 33,993 AED (including housing) enough for a family of four? We're not planning to get a maid, perhaps 1 or 2 night outs would be enough. No gym membership whatsoever - just a simple life with a family car.
2) As it is an academic position (I have a PhD and a double Masters, and currently teaching in UK uni), is 33,993 AED considered low for the position with my qualification? In the offer letter, they've written basic salary as 13,993 AED pcm, and cost of living subsidy as 20,000 AED pcm. I assume the reason for low basic salary is so that they can avoid paying high gratuity every end of the year?
3) Biggest question, will our move to AD from the UK be worth it? I now earn GBP2093 after NI etc, in the UK. I could barely save up as the rent is sky high and council tax is ridiculously expensive.

Appreciate all your opinion! Thanks so much!

w_scott

What is your academic rank? years of experience?
Salary packages vary a lot from one university to another in UAE

exeter16

Hi w_scott,

It's for an assistant professor position. Been teaching for almost 10 years but just received my PhD in 2019.

csdf

Regarding housing, there are plenty of houses in the middle of the island with annual rents ranging from 140,000 upwards. I think houses in Karama Blocks A and B are around 150,000; similar for the Old Mushrif Compound. Khalidiyah Village and Mushrif Gardens around 180,000. Palms Oasis around 200,000. These are all be older compounds. On top of rent, factor in 5% municipality tax (for a villa) and an average of 2000 or 3000 dhs/month utility bills (again, for a villa; apartments are way cheaper).

On top of rent, utilities and schooling, factor in that food is quite expensive here. We (family of five) easily spend 5000 dhs/month on supermarket shopping but a frugal family could cut that down quite a lot. A night out can be as little as 200 dhs per couple (cheap restaurant, no alcohol) to 1000 dhs plus. Alcohol is very expensive.
I'm not an academic so it's a bit hard to say whether this is ballpark right or not; however, my instinct is that "comfortable" for a British family of four starts from about 40k, irrespective of your profession. And yes, they make the basic low so that your end of service gratuity is low.

Your Education Allowance isn't bad - I get a max of 40 per child, which is also pro-rated downwards depending on the child's age, and only applicable from the age of 3 upwards (so doesn't go towards nursery fees). School fees (at a British school) for any child aged 6 or above will be higher than 40k/year.

To answer this you really need to build up a list of monthly outgoings and see whether you think you can save anything. Happy to give you guidance on other costs (e.g. car) if you need.

Millhouse

i guess 100k of schooling on top of the 33k, makes it 41k.

If the wife doesn’t work and there are no maid requirements etc. It is possible. If she can work - even another 5k, ideally at the same school as the kids then it would be much better than now.

exeter16

Thanks so much for taking time to reply to this.
I’ve seen some of the villas (online) in some of these areas, mostly are quite run down/old fashioned - the rent is shocking btw. I’ll probably go for a 3-bedroom apartment for a start, just to keep the bills etc lower for the first few years.

I am a bit worried about daily expenses (groceries etc.) as we do tend to stock up quite often, our children are big eaters! We don’t really go out, perhaps just once or twice a fortnight? Hopefully that would cut down cost?

You mentioned that ‘comfortable’ starts from 40k, is that just basic salary or including housing and education all together? Or just basic and housing? I plan to negotiate my basic, perhaps another 4-5k on top of that 33k?

I’m also trying my luck with the edu allowance, trying to push for 60k per child, if that’s even possible!!

Yes please! Do share about cars, insurance etc.

exeter16

Wife plans to work after a year when we’re more settled. Do you think it’s a good salary package? Enough to live comfortably for our family of four?

csdf

They will look run-down in the photos because they leave them in whatever state the previous tenant left them in, until a new tenant signs up. At that point they will paint the whole place and fix any maintenance issues. But yes, city centre villas are older (it's the tradeoff you pay, along with higher rent, for being in the city and not in some sand-pit next to the E11 motorway). Apartments are going to be cheaper and newer, for sure. And yes, rent is shocking. Real estate (in Abu Dhabi) is a quasi government monopoly, with supply strictly controlled and non-commercial interests pushing to keep rents high.

If I were you I'd reserve judgement until you can physically see some places - the older city-centre compounds have a bit of charm which is lacking (in my opinion) from the new places. A few established trees / landscaping can make all the difference, when compared to some of the sun-parched newer compounds off-island. I'd also highly recommend to rent from a corporate land lord, rather than a private landlord, as the latter can be a real pain to deal with, with absolutely no chance of recourse if (when) they stop doing maintenance / refuse to return your deposit etc.

Bear in mind that most properties are provided completely unfurnished, and by completely I mean completely. You have to provide not just white goods, but curtain rails and curtains, which can be another nice hit to the wallet at the start.

Wife and I ordered a salad to share, and two juices for lunch today. Total was 115 dhs, if that gives you any idea of a random day-to-day expense. A bottle of wine from the off-licence is probably not going to be less than 50dhs, but a good bottle will be closer to 100dhs. 2 litres of milk is 10 dhs; 15 eggs cost about the same. A box of Coco Pops (Millhouse's favourite), is about 18 dhs.

I just looked at my most recent Carrefour order: 4 cans of lemonade, one 750g box of cornflakes, a pack of ground coffee and a 1.4kg bag of cat biscuits came to 91 dhs, including a 5dhs "urgent" delivery fee (the cats were hungry).

That would be 40k all-in.

Car rental is probably going to start at 2000/month for something horrible, reaching 3500/month or so for something semi-decent. Advantage is that they do all the registration, servicing, insurance etc. A new car will range from 50,000 for something horrible, upwards to whatever you fancy. There's plenty of second-hand cars on the market, though the bureaucracy involved in a second-hand car purchase is probably best avoided until you've got your eye in for how things work here. In terms of car insurance if you own, premiums are around 2% of insured value (at least that's what mine are). So 2000-3000 per year, depending. Petrol is cheap - I live in the city 5 km from the office and fill up the car once a month at around 140 dhs for the tank. If you live off-island you'll inevitably spend more, plus there's the road-toll if you come on island during rush hour (the toll's not a lot, but I imagine it might start to stack up if you have to come in every day).

Millhouse

It will be more comfortable than your current life. It will not be the life of excess a lot of people here have.

We are four and a maid. One in nursery, one at home all day.

rent is 12k, credit card (which covers everything except for the nursery and maid) is about 15k, nursery is about 5k, maid about 4K.

I own my cars outright so no rental costs etc. I don’t have a lavish life as we both work a lot, but it’s very easy to spend 500-800dh on a meal for two.

live in a flat and some of those costs can come down. I recommend you do that.

exeter16

Thanks both! Very insightful indeed! We are due to arrive some time in July. One month to look around for a place to rent, hopefully won’t take that long! Potential employer will cover hotel for 30 days but no allowances for furniture and such.

Also, I’m wondering how hard it is to get around looking for a place to rent. I’d imagine getting a taxi every time we need to go out in our first month there? Or are we allowed to rent a car using UK or international licence? Would be much easier to drive around on our own.

perhaps wise to ship some furniture from our UK home? Electronics especially telly, washer dryer etc?

would really appreciate if you both could share good, reliable agents to deal with when looking for place for rent and buying cars?

thanks again!

Millhouse

make sure the health policy properly covers the kids. I spent 1800dh on vaccines today for the youngest. I remember my first job and they never covered preventative type stuff.

I shipped the contents of the whole house excluding the white goods.

exeter16

Thanks Millhouse. Will keep this in mind once I receive the formal contract (yet to sign anything as still negotiating some things). I plan to ship some of our things including washer dryer and perhaps our telly. Any recommendations for good, reliable shipping company that doesn't break the bank?

Gavtek

Reem Island is about a 10/15 minute drive to any corner of the main Abu Dhabi "island", a commute to central Abu Dhabi is a piece of cake. A 3 bedroom apartment there will be more than adequate and help you keep costs down. I think it's Gate Towers that has a massive pool with lazy river, etc, and is connected to a mall with a Waitrose. That'll keep the family more than happy.

Salary-wise, it's more than enough to live comfortably but you most likely won't be saving too much unless you're really frugal. You can get a Yas Island annual pass allowing you unlimited access to Yas Waterworld, Ferrari World and Warner Bros World for AED 895 per person (plus 10% discount if you bank with ADCB). That's a good way to keep the kids entertained throughout the year for a one-off outlay.

exeter16

hi, thanks for taking time to reply to my post. Looking at things, I probably think it’s wise for us to rent an apartment so that we could cut down cost. Initially, I plan to look for a villa with a garden as we now live in a 3 bedroom house in the UK with a garden for my kids to play. Of course utility here isn’t as high in AD so I think we’ll have to go with an apartment. I think there are plenty of parks around Reem where we can bring our children to let off steam?

Gavtek

2 big parks in Reem, there's a beach area too I think. There will soon by a massive mall with indoor ski slope. Every apartment block will have its own pool.

Utility bills for villas are much higher than apartments, looking at an extra AED 1000/month in some cases, more if it's a leaky old villa. Most villas don't tend to have big gardens anyway.