pinebluffvariant

Hello all,

As some of you may know I will be moving to Dubai very shortly. My mum this morning raised an interesting point which I had not considered - why don't I buy somewhere instead of losing housing allowance money on rent.

I have about £35k in the bank now with no debts and about £50k/year income in Dubai which includes £10k housing allowance for the year.

Can I get your thoughts at renting versus buying a 1/2 bed somewhere near DIC? Am I in a good position to buy?

Assuming I am in a good position to buy, how is the housing market looking at the moment in Dubai? Is it on the downturn like in the UK (even globally) and therefore potential to negotiate a good deal?

I am not neccessarily looking at this as an investment but minimising financial loss when I do leave Dubai in maybe 2-3 years longer if become settled. I figure I will be £25-30k down if I rent, so it maybe makes sense contributing that money instead to housing equity.

Thoughts from anyone? Thanks in advance!

Blue Cat

get here and rent for 6 months, then decide when you see the build quality etc etc. You will need more than 35 grand though

Eeyore

Rental on a 1-bed in the DIC area will set you back about 10,000 dhs per month, so if you can get a mortgage in that sort of ballpark, it probably makes sense to buy.

You may find you have to wait a while before any local lenders will give you a mortgage, though; some will want to see 3-6 months of pay slips first.

If you do decide to buy, make sure you bargain hard - there's huge availability at the moment and it's become much more of a buyers' market than it used to be.

Blue Cat

I would have bet 500 that you would have said don't invest here!!!

pinebluffvariant

35k not enough? Bummer that is expensive...

pinebluffvariant

Thanks for the advice - I have also heard there is a glut of property coming onto the market in the year coming and it may be best to wait till then for more choice and supply.

Blue Cat

get the Gulf News when you get here and look in the property section to get an idea how much stuff is going for. We were looking for an apartment some time back but we had to give a 20% deposit, some of the developers will only use certain banks, they all differ on their terms. A friend of mine has got a 1 bed on the Marina (not the one that is renting) another one, she has paid just less than a million for it (dhs)

AND - apartments, seeing as there are so many of them and more on the way, worries me about re sale

Meow

If you have employment history, you do not necessarily have to wait very long to be eligible for a mortgage - you just need to be permanently employed, i.e. not on probation. For the best mortgage deals you should have a deposit of 30%.

Let me know if you want more info on this.


Whatever you decide, I sugest you wait a while before comitting yourself to ensure that you want to stay in Dubai for a while.

Eeyore

I've actually said several times before on here that if you're just looking for a place to live *and* you've got the necessary deposit *and* you won't be committing more than about 40% of your monthly salary to paying the mortgage, then it probably makes sense. Mind you, that's basic common sense that applies anywhere in the world.

It's the buy-at-any-cost and/or the I-expect-my-property-to-quadruple-in-value-in-six-months and/or the I-expect-to-be-able-to-charge-whatever-I-want-in-rent brigade who are going to come unstuck. Like that daft woman a few months back who'd bought a Lakes villa but admitted that her family finances had been stretched to the limit to do it and she had no financial breathing space left.

Meow

OMG! I agree with Eeyore!

Blue Cat

OMG so do I !!!!

pinebluffvariant

Can't be as bad as in the UK, everyone and their pet monkey is jumping on property - sure going to get a shock soon.

Gordon Brown, 1997: No more boom and bust with an "independant" *snort* BOE . Yeah right.

pinebluffvariant

You are SO helpful Blue Cat! Take comfort in the fact that if there is a god you have scored a ton of points in the afterlife.

Blue Cat

Karma will do for now

Eeyore

The tide is already turning - the number of repossessions has leapt up. Too many people taking on too much debt because money was too cheap for too long.

I did like Eddie George's post-retirement admission last year that the Bank should have raised interest rates years ago to curb the cheap-credit free-for-all... but they wanted to keep people spending to keep the economy moving, even though all they were doing was staving off the hangover, not avoiding it permanently.