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For a garage it'll be ranches, victory heights, jvc or green community. Your budget is decent enough to pick where you like tbh, although in your negotiations you should bear in mind that utility bills on a house that size will be sizeable.
Maids room is handy for storage and some developments with garaging will have a drivers room as well.
Pity the green community didn't think about access as its a nice development. The 4 bed bungalows with detached garages are fantastic.
Tbh if it were me I would go ranches, it is a very handy location.
Maids room is handy for storage and some developments with garaging will have a drivers room as well.
Pity the green community didn't think about access as its a nice development. The 4 bed bungalows with detached garages are fantastic.
Tbh if it were me I would go ranches, it is a very handy location.
Fats25 said:
Guys,
Some good information above - much appreciated.
The commute time will definitely have a bearing on where we choose to live. We currently both have over an hour commutes each way in UK (less if on motorbikes), and we are looking at reducing this.
We do not have our hearts set on Arabian Ranches, is just we know people that went out recently and live there, hence it is an idea to look there.
Our requirements are:-
1) 3/4 bedrooms - so people can visit
2) Maid room - just in case
3) Study (could be a bedroom)
4) Garden - Mrs loves gardening, and cats need somewhere to run around
5) Garage - I cannot see me giving up my motorbike fix - be it road/track or dirt (or all 3!)
Aside from that we are easily pleased!!
Mirdif would meet your needs.Some good information above - much appreciated.
The commute time will definitely have a bearing on where we choose to live. We currently both have over an hour commutes each way in UK (less if on motorbikes), and we are looking at reducing this.
We do not have our hearts set on Arabian Ranches, is just we know people that went out recently and live there, hence it is an idea to look there.
Our requirements are:-
1) 3/4 bedrooms - so people can visit
2) Maid room - just in case
3) Study (could be a bedroom)
4) Garden - Mrs loves gardening, and cats need somewhere to run around
5) Garage - I cannot see me giving up my motorbike fix - be it road/track or dirt (or all 3!)
Aside from that we are easily pleased!!
I used to live in Mirdif, it used to take around 10mins to get to my office next to DIFC and around 20 minutes to get home in the evening due to a few sets of lights on the return trip.
The issue with Mirdif is the planes, so you need to find a place away from the flight line.
Al Badia next to Festival City mall would be a good solution, if I had stayed then that was the next location I would have moved to.
The issue with Mirdif is the planes, so you need to find a place away from the flight line.
Al Badia next to Festival City mall would be a good solution, if I had stayed then that was the next location I would have moved to.
Back here again, and the offer has been made. Is definitely going to require some negotiating to get to the level I need, but I have something tangible now to begin to ask some questions.
Firstly I mentioned at the start of the thread re being an ex-pat or coming in as a local, especially related to tax. I now have the information from the company that I am speaking to, and an understanding as to where the confusion was with me being told there would be tax to pay.
Basically this company implement a policy of tax equalization on all ex-pat packages. More information here on why they do this. Suffice to say this is not that appealing for someone coming from high rate tax home location (UK) to a Low/No tax host location (Dubai). However the ex-pat package does have a lot of other benefits such as host local property management charges, host storage charges, host loss of car on sale, host rental of residence subsidy, Local Utilies tc etc). The package is all based in $'s - so I will obviously have two currencies that I need to gamble against, AED and £'s.
The local package includes all of the relocation costs, salary, bonus, car, and housing rent, but not the ongoing costs for the period of work there.
Obviously if local then I am free to move within the host country as I choose for employment, subject to opportunities, but as stated above with very little protection. As a assignee on an ex-pat package, there is more security, but less opportunity to move. I see the ex-pat package as a career, the local package as a short/mid term contract. i.e. if local when it is finished and I want out there is very little I can do but leave. With the ex-pat package the likelihood is they will move me on to another location/home, on the same package.
Other advantage (tbc) is that there will be no issue with HMRC from a bringing back money to UK, and making continuous payments against mortgage etc in UK. I will not be a non-resident, so there should be no unknown tax implications.
To summarize I now have two offers. To make it even trickier they are not like for like. Even the housing allowance on both packages is different! What I need to do is make a comparison of the two and see where the gaps are and how flexible they are prepared to be.
So here are my initial questions:-
1) What are the average cost of utility bills over there? They have offered a total of AED 13600 p.a. for these, which I do not believe is anywhere near enough - I think it is a pointless number as it will barely make a dent. What would a ballpark figure be for a 4 bed place, with shared community pool?
2) Car/Transport offering is AED 36000 p.a. I am guessing leasing is the way for a vehicle? Where will they fall in the range of Dacia Duster -> Range Rover.
3) Houses they have offered AED 155000 p.a. for ex pat, and 210,000 for local. I know this is not enough, and they have offered it as we are 2 people, rather than considering what we want to maintain current standard of living. I have looked at what I can get for those prices on Dubai housing websites. My question is how much flexibility is there in asking prices for property, and what they will accept? Is there negotiation? How much inflation should I allow for houses? I understand prices rise every year. I want to ensure this is factored into the package - i.e. if I have a house year 1 at 250,000, and it rises to 300,000 year 2, I don't want to be forced to downgrade.
Again many Thanks for your time to read, and any advice most welcome.
Firstly I mentioned at the start of the thread re being an ex-pat or coming in as a local, especially related to tax. I now have the information from the company that I am speaking to, and an understanding as to where the confusion was with me being told there would be tax to pay.
Basically this company implement a policy of tax equalization on all ex-pat packages. More information here on why they do this. Suffice to say this is not that appealing for someone coming from high rate tax home location (UK) to a Low/No tax host location (Dubai). However the ex-pat package does have a lot of other benefits such as host local property management charges, host storage charges, host loss of car on sale, host rental of residence subsidy, Local Utilies tc etc). The package is all based in $'s - so I will obviously have two currencies that I need to gamble against, AED and £'s.
The local package includes all of the relocation costs, salary, bonus, car, and housing rent, but not the ongoing costs for the period of work there.
Obviously if local then I am free to move within the host country as I choose for employment, subject to opportunities, but as stated above with very little protection. As a assignee on an ex-pat package, there is more security, but less opportunity to move. I see the ex-pat package as a career, the local package as a short/mid term contract. i.e. if local when it is finished and I want out there is very little I can do but leave. With the ex-pat package the likelihood is they will move me on to another location/home, on the same package.
Other advantage (tbc) is that there will be no issue with HMRC from a bringing back money to UK, and making continuous payments against mortgage etc in UK. I will not be a non-resident, so there should be no unknown tax implications.
To summarize I now have two offers. To make it even trickier they are not like for like. Even the housing allowance on both packages is different! What I need to do is make a comparison of the two and see where the gaps are and how flexible they are prepared to be.
So here are my initial questions:-
1) What are the average cost of utility bills over there? They have offered a total of AED 13600 p.a. for these, which I do not believe is anywhere near enough - I think it is a pointless number as it will barely make a dent. What would a ballpark figure be for a 4 bed place, with shared community pool?
2) Car/Transport offering is AED 36000 p.a. I am guessing leasing is the way for a vehicle? Where will they fall in the range of Dacia Duster -> Range Rover.
3) Houses they have offered AED 155000 p.a. for ex pat, and 210,000 for local. I know this is not enough, and they have offered it as we are 2 people, rather than considering what we want to maintain current standard of living. I have looked at what I can get for those prices on Dubai housing websites. My question is how much flexibility is there in asking prices for property, and what they will accept? Is there negotiation? How much inflation should I allow for houses? I understand prices rise every year. I want to ensure this is factored into the package - i.e. if I have a house year 1 at 250,000, and it rises to 300,000 year 2, I don't want to be forced to downgrade.
Again many Thanks for your time to read, and any advice most welcome.
Fats25 said:
So here are my initial questions:-
1) What are the average cost of utility bills over there? They have offered a total of AED 13600 p.a. for these, which I do not believe is anywhere near enough - I think it is a pointless number as it will barely make a dent. What would a ballpark figure be for a 4 bed place, with shared community pool?
2) Car/Transport offering is AED 36000 p.a. I am guessing leasing is the way for a vehicle? Where will they fall in the range of Dacia Duster -> Range Rover.
3) Houses they have offered AED 155000 p.a. for ex pat, and 210,000 for local. I know this is not enough, and they have offered it as we are 2 people, rather than considering what we want to maintain current standard of living. I have looked at what I can get for those prices on Dubai housing websites. My question is how much flexibility is there in asking prices for property, and what they will accept? Is there negotiation? How much inflation should I allow for houses? I understand prices rise every year. I want to ensure this is factored into the package - i.e. if I have a house year 1 at 250,000, and it rises to 300,000 year 2, I don't want to be forced to downgrade.
Again many Thanks for your time to read, and any advice most welcome.
I am far too hungover to make any sense of the first bit but will give some perspective on the above.1) What are the average cost of utility bills over there? They have offered a total of AED 13600 p.a. for these, which I do not believe is anywhere near enough - I think it is a pointless number as it will barely make a dent. What would a ballpark figure be for a 4 bed place, with shared community pool?
2) Car/Transport offering is AED 36000 p.a. I am guessing leasing is the way for a vehicle? Where will they fall in the range of Dacia Duster -> Range Rover.
3) Houses they have offered AED 155000 p.a. for ex pat, and 210,000 for local. I know this is not enough, and they have offered it as we are 2 people, rather than considering what we want to maintain current standard of living. I have looked at what I can get for those prices on Dubai housing websites. My question is how much flexibility is there in asking prices for property, and what they will accept? Is there negotiation? How much inflation should I allow for houses? I understand prices rise every year. I want to ensure this is factored into the package - i.e. if I have a house year 1 at 250,000, and it rises to 300,000 year 2, I don't want to be forced to downgrade.
Again many Thanks for your time to read, and any advice most welcome.
1) I have just moved into a 1 bed villa, bills (water and leccy) so far are arounf 850 a month, so 10k a year, TV and internet is about 600, call it 7k a year. So if you are in a bigger villa than me, nowhere near enough if you want them to cover it all
2) Most basic of the basic hire cars, Yaris, Sunny etc is about 1800 a month I think, so again doesn't sound like much, everyone on here owns rather than leases though I think.
3) Asking prices on websites won't be far off actual transaction prices, the market is going up so there won't be that much room for negotiation. My mate paid 15k more than me for the same unit because he got it 8 weeks later. How much longer that is sustainable I don't know, it is silly season again in that respect. paying for a year upfronm will be the best bet in getting some knocked off asking price. There are rules and guidelines about what the rise in rent can be each year, there is an index to calculate any rise
http://www.dubailand.gov.ae/english/Tanzeem/Rental...
I can maybe offer a couple of insights for you...
I have a 5 bed detached villa in Meadows 2 with no private pool, but a large community one directly opposite. rental is 270,000aed per year, paid in 2 cheques.
DEWA is split into 2 sections... housing fee, which is 5% of the annual rent paid monthly (IE: 5% of 270,000 = 13,500 / 12 = 1125aed per month.
On top of that, the water and electricity charges run anywhere from 350 a month at the moment to 3,000 a month in the summer when all the a/c units are on.
To be comfortable in your finances, you'd need to allow 35,000 a year for DEWA
I have a 5 bed detached villa in Meadows 2 with no private pool, but a large community one directly opposite. rental is 270,000aed per year, paid in 2 cheques.
DEWA is split into 2 sections... housing fee, which is 5% of the annual rent paid monthly (IE: 5% of 270,000 = 13,500 / 12 = 1125aed per month.
On top of that, the water and electricity charges run anywhere from 350 a month at the moment to 3,000 a month in the summer when all the a/c units are on.
To be comfortable in your finances, you'd need to allow 35,000 a year for DEWA
Are there other local taxes/rates that need paying that I have not thought about?
I'm trying to work all the calculations out for everyday living, and things I am thinking about are:-
Water/Electricity - 35,000 p.a
TV - 7000 p.a.
Internet/Telephone
House Insurance
Vehicle Insurance
Vehicle Tax/Tolls
Local residency maintenance (or is that included in rent?).
Anything obvious I am missing?
They have a COLA index they use for cost of living, and that is approx 40,000 p.a. additional payment for bits and pieces - so I am hoping that sort of balances out food/drink anyway.
I'm trying to work all the calculations out for everyday living, and things I am thinking about are:-
Water/Electricity - 35,000 p.a
TV - 7000 p.a.
Internet/Telephone
House Insurance
Vehicle Insurance
Vehicle Tax/Tolls
Local residency maintenance (or is that included in rent?).
Anything obvious I am missing?
They have a COLA index they use for cost of living, and that is approx 40,000 p.a. additional payment for bits and pieces - so I am hoping that sort of balances out food/drink anyway.
Fats25 said:
Are there other local taxes/rates that need paying that I have not thought about?
I'm trying to work all the calculations out for everyday living, and things I am thinking about are:-
Water/Electricity - 35,000 p.a
TV - 7000 p.a.
Internet/Telephone
House Insurance
Vehicle Insurance
Vehicle Tax/Tolls
Local residency maintenance (or is that included in rent?).
Anything obvious I am missing?
They have a COLA index they use for cost of living, and that is approx 40,000 p.a. additional payment for bits and pieces - so I am hoping that sort of balances out food/drink anyway.
Tv, internet and landline are bundled togetherI'm trying to work all the calculations out for everyday living, and things I am thinking about are:-
Water/Electricity - 35,000 p.a
TV - 7000 p.a.
Internet/Telephone
House Insurance
Vehicle Insurance
Vehicle Tax/Tolls
Local residency maintenance (or is that included in rent?).
Anything obvious I am missing?
They have a COLA index they use for cost of living, and that is approx 40,000 p.a. additional payment for bits and pieces - so I am hoping that sort of balances out food/drink anyway.
I don't know anyone that has house insurance so can't comment on cost.
Car insurance is about 3.5% of value of car
Salk (toll) is 5 aed a pop, depends how often you go under it, no tax
No seperate maintenance fee, major stuff is Landlord responsibility, minor is tenants
Nothing jumps out as missing from that list but my head is quite a long way up my arse today!
36k is a pittance as far as car allowances go. that would lease something like a basic ford edge or a pajero but nothing better,
looks like the local contract is being sweetened to make you have both feet here, so to speak, so that it gives them more confidence that you will see out your contract.
had to laugh at your comment re: 'want to maintain current SOL'. wouldn't we all mate! my rent here is 3.5x my uk mortgage for half the space and 2 less bedrooms!
TBH the offer seems pretty middle of the road, not really in line with the package i would expect from your first posts regarding the scope and stature of the role you'd be doing.
looks like the local contract is being sweetened to make you have both feet here, so to speak, so that it gives them more confidence that you will see out your contract.
had to laugh at your comment re: 'want to maintain current SOL'. wouldn't we all mate! my rent here is 3.5x my uk mortgage for half the space and 2 less bedrooms!
TBH the offer seems pretty middle of the road, not really in line with the package i would expect from your first posts regarding the scope and stature of the role you'd be doing.
shirt said:
36k is a pittance as far as car allowances go. that would lease something like a basic ford edge or a pajero but nothing better,
To be fair - I am not surprised by this number. It is actually least of my concerns. The number pretty much matches what the UK guys get towards car allowance, and in UK I have my own vehicles I will sell, and expected to put towards my vehicles in Dubai anyway. I may yet use it for negotiation though, as I suspect it will be easier to get benefits maximised rather than salary.
shirt said:
looks like the local contract is being sweetened to make you have both feet here, so to speak, so that it gives them more confidence that you will see out your contract.
I'm not so sure on this. I think they would much prefer I was permanent on an ex-pat package. It means they can move me around the world as they see fit, without the need to negotiate a salary every time.
I would also argue it makes their position a lot stronger with regards to me walking to another opportunity - although to be fair that works both ways.
shirt said:
had to laugh at your comment re: 'want to maintain current SOL'. wouldn't we all mate! my rent here is 3.5x my uk mortgage for half the space and 2 less bedrooms!
Point taken - and I understand the variations. I am looking at 2 x my mortgage, for same size house. It is a lifestyle choice, and one I won't be able to change. It all comes down to whether the offer is to maintain same SOL? Or is to put a roof over your head during duration of stay?
The way it was painted by my potential new boss, was that the numbers should not be an issue on the housing thing. Need to find more info on this tomorrow.
shirt said:
TBH the offer seems pretty middle of the road, not really in line with the package i would expect from your first posts regarding the scope and stature of the role you'd be doing.
I have been with this company on contracts for 5 years now. They always offer low. I have managed to get a 12% annual increase through them during that period. This was a starting offer, and I knew I would have to negotiate. To start with the package was based on the role, and my current contract.My contract expired Friday, and I just renegotiated my contract until May 2014 with another 10% increase, so that is the starting point on the salary.
The fun begins now.
dxbtiger said:
I don't know anyone that has house insurance so can't comment on cost.
That would be me.... I pay just over 800aed per year for a full contents cover with accidental damage, cover away from home and a few large ticket items itemised.Buildings insurance is the landlord's responsibility.
K50 DEL said:
Buildings insurance is the landlord's responsibility.
The question of them actually taking insurance out is another matter as a friend of mine found out to his cost last year. The inspectors report stated that he caused the electrical fire (clearly it started in the circuit breaker box) but it was suspected that the landlord (local) didn't have insurance as my friend was told to claim everything on his insurance.K50 DEL said:
That would be me.... I pay just over 800aed per year for a full contents cover with accidental damage, cover away from home and a few large ticket items itemised.Buildings insurance is the landlord's responsibility.
I did have an 'oh crap' moment when we were in the apartment, about 20k's worth of camera gear on the dining table and there was a fire in the car park.
Sprinkler going off would have been a disaster.
K50 DEL said:
dxbtiger said:
I don't know anyone that has house insurance so can't comment on cost.
That would be me.... I pay just over 800aed per year for a full contents cover with accidental damage, cover away from home and a few large ticket items itemised.Buildings insurance is the landlord's responsibility.
Thanks
6th Gear said:
K50 DEL said:
dxbtiger said:
I don't know anyone that has house insurance so can't comment on cost.
That would be me.... I pay just over 800aed per year for a full contents cover with accidental damage, cover away from home and a few large ticket items itemised.Buildings insurance is the landlord's responsibility.
Thanks
The lady I deal with is Smita, she's on smita.mehta@ae.rsagroup.com
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