BeautyMaven

Hi,

We are finalizing our package at present to move to Bahrain, and as always with new places we don't really know if the offer is normal etc.

Salary 10k USD, car, insurance, return flight per year, housing allowance OR ''help us find a place''. They also offered to pay schooling but we don't have kids as of yet.

Is that good/bad/average for Bahrain?
Should we take the housing allowance? although they haven't told us what it is yet, or let them find somewhere for us which obviously we could say yay or nay to?
What is a reasonable housing allowance?

All help mucho appreciated

Welivehere

Decent housing will be between 1500 to 2200BHD for 3-4 bed villa.
Other differences from Dubai:

• Rent can be paid monthly
• You get inclusive (telephone, water, leccy, municipality tax) and exclusive (self explanatory) deals over here. Make sure you check which one you are getting, municipality tax is 10% of rent per month so it makes a difference
• Expat clause – In rent contract – Allows you to break contract with just one months notice if you are leaving Bahrain
• Rent increases aren’t capped yet. Might be worth getting a maximum amount agreed in the contract
• Landlord pays agents fee's not you

Finally it is a renters market here at the moment. Haggle hard….

Let me know if you want details of decent agent....

BeautyMaven

Hey,
Thanks for the info! Stupid question, but when you quoted the villa price average you mean per yer right?
Does everyone live in apartments or villas?

How long have you been in BH for?

Victor Meldrew

Stupid question, $10k per month, correct? Does that include your housing allowance?

BeautyMaven

No, it doesn't include housing allowance. Edited to say; the company do the allowance/getting us a place separately

Victor Meldrew

I'm not familiar with Bahrain salaries, but do have experience of other ME countries.

$10k pcm sounds like an extremely good salary by most people standards. If you don't want it, I'll have it......

BeautyMaven

Thanks, that is good to know!

lionheart

I wouldn't necessarily describe Dhs36,750 per month as "extremely good" if it also includes housing. It's okay but that's all... unless you are a youngster with little experience.

norsk

For bahrain that is a pretty good salary. It's not obscene but it's a good salary if it is the basic (ie housing, car, school etc is in addition). You cannot compare it to salaries in Dubai by the way...

Oh and by the way. Paying BD1500 - 2200 for a villa is a ridiculous level for most expats in bahrain. Maybe if you must live the expat ghetto of Saar and want the best of the best, but there are plenty of alternatives. First of all not everyone wants a villa. They are normally unfurnished for one so you need to buy loads of furniture (or bring your existing stuff with you), secondly they are normally quoted exclusive of electricity and tax which will add a chunk onto your monthly outgoings.

As a comparison I live in Zinj (in Manama but only 10 minutes to the causeway) in a fully furnished all inclusive brand new apartment with a sea-view and I pay BD800 a month. In my opinion it is completely unnecessary to pay more than BD1200 a month even if you live in Saar! I looked at some places out that way, but decided it is just too far away from town...

Welivehere

Hey Maven,

Prices are PCM. You can get something sub 1200BHD but they are usually older villas. Apartments are obviously cheaper. The local rag... Gulf Daily New has a classified section that will provide some insight...

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/classifieds.aspx

We have been in Bahrain for a year now, having done 5 years in Dxb before that. Its, errm, “different” here after Dubs… Like most things, pro’s and cons…

Keep asking questions or PM me if you want more info. Always willing to talk on phone or email if it is easier….

Victor Meldrew

Which is why I described it as extremely good. It doesnt include accomodation. Agreed?

BeautyMaven

Correct, housing not included.

BeautyMaven

What do you mean when you say ''different''? Can you tell me what you think the pros and cons are please?

BeautyMaven

We are ready to go and have just been informed by new company that ''there are too many options'' for housing (they were supposed to just provide us with accomodation) and so they will give us the average 'expat housing allowance' of $1000USD pcm and let us choose ourselves.
Is this normal? From the posts on here I don't think we will get anywhere for that, correct?

norsk

Of course you can find something for $1000 pcm (BD377), but I'm not sure you will want to live there!

This is the same 'trick' a lot of companies use in Saudi when calculating housing allowance, basically they include all expats in the company when calculating (which means cleaners, security guards, handyman, data entry, and so on). Now these positions are also normally filled by expats but not western expats and they get paid a lot less than you and will live in lower standard housing, and therefore they drag the average down...

I can't remember your requirements for housing, and prices have been falling across Bahrain over the last year, but here are some approximate examples:

^ Fully furnished high standard 3 bedroom flat in town (Adliya, Zinj, Umm al Hassam, Juffair) - BD800-900 inclusive
^ Standalone semi-furnished (white goods + beds + sofa usually) 3 bedroom villa in Saar without private pool - BD750-950 exclusive
^ Okay/good standard compound semi-furnished 3 bedroom villa in Saar - BD850-1200 exclusive
^ High standard compound semi-furnished 3 bedroom villa in Saar - BD1100-1800 exclusive

I haven't been keeping that close an eye lately so you'd be best off checking somewhere like http://www.bahrainpropertyworld.com/ to get a better idea of what prices are like...

(I just saw that in your original post the basic salary is USD10K. This might also explain why the housing allowance is on the low side. I'm sure someone else will contradict, but from what I have heard from people I know that live and work in Bahrain there are quite a few companies here that no longer pay housing and schooling allowance and rather include it in the basic salary. Just a thought to bear in mind when requesting more allowance..)