firstlady

hello All

my hubby just got an offer from sabic grade 15 and apart from the basic salary he gets 8625SAR for housing and 2000SAR for transportation,

we have 4 small kids and I'm wondering if the housing allowance will be ok to get into a decent compound and if the 2000 will do for a good car.

what international schools are available to expats?

Thanks everyone.

nonthaburi

What country ?

OleJanx

Well, given that SABIC is Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp, and that the poster was quoting SAR, it doesn't seem too tricky to figure it out, does it?

FriendlyExpat

8625 SAR (monthly) is not quite enough for a compound but you can get a huge off-compound apartment (or a reasonable sized house) for that price. With a family, however, you should absolutely not live off compound as you will be trapped, lonely and bored.

The lower-end compounds (FAL, Seder Village) are around 120k SAR - 200k per year (depending on whether you want a small apartment or a villa) and are still friendly places with enough going to keep you interested, just lower quality accommodation and facilities. Seder Village has 3/4 bedroom bungalows starting around 150k/year and it has a good reputation for social life.

Luxury compounds start at around 200k SAR/year minimum (for an apartment) and 250k - 400k+ SAR for villas. Luxury compounds are Al Bustan, Arizona, Cordoba, Kingdom, etc. As an example, Arizona costs 220k/yr for small 2 bed apartment, 275-300k for 3 bedroom villa. Plenty of postings on this topic on this forum if you search.

As for cars, 2,000 SAR a month will get you a tiny car rented or you can buy a reasonable SUV for around 90k-150k SAR and sell it on for a loss of around 2,000 SAR/month depreciation (but requires much higher initial outlay and some risk e.g. if you crash the car).

Beakersful

If he's working in the Eastern Province, somewhere like Jubail (where are the plants are, particularly Sabic), a single guy can get into a compound at 9,000sar/month and rent a small car with insurance and lowered liability for 2100sar/month.

With you and 4 kids, upping to family accommodation rates and considering education costs in the future, you're eating into your salary about 8,000-10,000sar a month.

You're going to need to check he's on family or single status contract and whether you or the employer are covering you and the kids for flights, medical care, visas, etc.

nonthaburi

Ooops!Didn't know SABIC and didn't see the SAR.

Must be getting old.

OleJanx

Never mind. Time catches up with all of us, somedays more than others...

FriendlyExpat

Oh yes, sorry, my reply above was assuming you were in SABIC HQ in Riyadh (which may well not be the case). Prices outside Riyadh are cheaper.

Tony Moxon

I am Seder Village Compound and agree it was low end but has gone even lower this year. It is no longer a 'Genuine western compound' as advertised and is now very arab oriantated. Not a comfortable place for a western family anymore.