klaus3974

I have been following BE for a while. It has been an amazing source of information to plan our move to Dubai. We will move in April next year. I was able to postpone my job offer for nine months so we can have our first child here in Europe.

We decided we will go for a small Villa (2 bedrooms plus Maid)... so we are now thinking three possibilities: Springs, Arabian Ranches, and Mirdif (Any other place to consider?). We want to have a little garden like we have here in Oxford and also the sense of community since we do not know anyone in Dubai. My job is somewhere between the Trade Centre and Downtown Dubai so I guess the three options for housing are OK.

Like everyone living and planning to move to Dubai... I am a little worry about rental prices. With the salary I negotiated I could rent a two bedroom Villa today BUT what will be the prices when I move in April??? What do you think, they will keep going up or finally stop? Looking to previous threads... people in 2004 where already complaining about rents and predicted they will go down... same in 2006 and 2007... but rents are still increasing. I was in Dubai in May and Springs Type 4 were going for 160K, now they are 180K or up.

What do you think about rents for 2009? Up or Down?

Cheers,

Blue Cat

Villas will go up without a doubt, apartments 'may' level out due to the influx of new properties in the market. A 2 bed on the Springs will hit 200k in the next 6 months, that is my guess.

NorthernLad

I'd expect a little rent increase, but I can't help feeling that the fallout from financial problems around the world will have some effect here.

Global companies will likely have to make cutbacks, no pay increases, housing allowance freeze and so on.

Then we might see some people keen to sell property while they can make some gain, or to release money if they have property here as a holiday home/investment.

I'm off to grab a beer before this black wave of depression overcomes me.

Thinkingaboutit

I was also thinking about this, I'm moving to Dubai in two weeks and was wondering if it was worth taking a short term let first.

My conclusion was that the property market in Dubai is too hard to call, if it goes down as the result of a catastrophic business or geopolitical event it would go down a lot, but if one of these doesn't happen it will carry on rising until people can only just afford to pay rent and then drop back a bit when apartments are empty.

klaus3974

The thing is... apartments are already empty and rents keep going up... so demand=supply is not working. I am an economist and I am trying really hard to understand the game owners are playing. Higher rents than a mature economy just do not make sense. How many people make more than 40K per month (what you need to live in Dubai Marina) in Dubai?

IndieG

If the Sh Mo does not have rent caps for 2009 then I am looking at a 100% increase in my rent....

Madam Medusa

i'm dreading my rent increase next year if there is no cap...we're paying loads less than the neighbours, even with our 5% increase this time...

MM, xx

Thinkingaboutit

Why 40k pm to live in The Marina? What are you basing it on?

Don't mean this in a confrontational way, just interested.

Blue Cat

us too

Blue Cat

what Klaus is saying is that to afford rent of 17k approx per month you need to earn in the region of 40k per month

klaus3974

A family with one or two kids needs minimum a two bedroom apartments, that will cost you 12-15K per month in rent in Dubai Marina. That is a third of your salary... add education, living expenses, utilities, the car, and soon you will be touching 40K per month.

My point was... lot of these developments are for high-middle class people who could not afford the 5 bedroom dream Villa neither would live in Deira. I would like to know how may people are making something like 35K-55K per month? Cause the number of apartments for those people is very big and more are comming soon!

arbroath_abroad

Lots of jobs still provide housing totally seperate from salary.

That's the deal you want...

klaus3974

I had four job offers... all of them basic salary + allowances. None of them provided an apartment. Maybe is the sector I work... I know teachers still get apartments.

NorthernLad

Be interesting to see what happens if apartment prices keep going up, I guess school fees will be on the up. Or less teachers/higher class numbers.

I don't know of the any major IT companies who provide a house, just housing allowance.

arbroath_abroad

I'm in the offshore construction business and some of us are provided with suitable accom. Some employes however get an allowance. Depends really.

Given the current situation with rent, I'm very fortunate.