Dubai property rental advice needed

[shirt]

dan, which is your favourite toilet? with 13 you must have a favourite!

[oilydan]

I like the spare bedroom. The seat shape has a certain elegance to it, the décor is almost Elizabethan in style and the ceramic toilet roll cover adds to the 'English Renaissance' bowel movement experience. Add a few Shakespeare tomes and it really brings defecation to new levels.

[XB70]

oilydan said:

I' in Al Barsha 2

Pros

Close to SZR (less than 2 minutes, Um Suqeim Rd (2 Minutes), Hessa St (2 Minutes), Mall of Emirates (2 Minutes)
little traffic
Walled in villa, kids can't get run over in the street
Own pool, can bathe nude
houses are very large (I have 4 bedrooms, and further rooms that could be full size double bedrooms that I use for a Gym {Treadmill, bike, huge machine}, Study with 3 desk workstations, kids playroom and a room for the dog - all full en-suite), there is a maids house with 2 double bedrooms, ensuite, lounge/diner and kitchen, plus a drivers house with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom - used for my man-sheds. Pool change rooms finish it off bringing the total bathrooms to 13. I can poop in a different toilet every day for almost 2 weeks
195k rent.

cons

DEWA. AED2k per month on average.
Some local neighbors have kids with quad bikes.
DEWA. Again.

Just looking at the map, I would have been quite close to you!

I spent an hour on Monday trying to get back from your side of the SZR to the other to try and make an appointment at GEMS Wellington for a tour..which I missed by 15mins, despite prodigious use of the V8 in my friend's XF.

I then tried to drive around to see places to see but satnav was rubbish, as were the maps I had so spent an hour and a bit in a traffic jam on a road I could not get off in the middle of worker accommodation. Nice.

That does look like a bargain for the area. I have an offer (flew in and flew out over the weekend) for a role that is next to DIFC so a bit of a commute but wife does not drive so would need somewhere close to shops etc and Old Town is too expensive (where my friend lives) although very nice.

[K50 DEL]

My friend whose wife doesn't drive lived in Arabian Ranches for years, the local facilities there are great and there's a fast regular bus service to MOE..... just a thought!

[Chilli]

K50 DEL said:

My friend whose wife doesn't drive lived in Arabian Ranches for years, the local facilities there are great and there's a fast regular bus service to MOE..... just a thought!

Yeah, but those speed bumps?

[K50 DEL]

Chilli said:

K50 DEL said:

My friend whose wife doesn't drive lived in Arabian Ranches for years, the local facilities there are great and there's a fast regular bus service to MOE..... just a thought!

Yeah, but those speed bumps?

The bumps in the ranches aren't too bad, even in the Vette I could take them at 50kph... the bumps throughout Springs are far worse.... when I lived in Springs 3 I did 21 on the way to work in JLT and 27 on the way home... crazy.

[RSGulp]

Thanks to K50DEL and fats25 for the emails and information.
K50DEL has kindly offered to show me and my wife a little of Dubai when we're there which is much appreciated.

Cheers for the response. I'm sure I'll have a load of questions as D-Day gets closer for us...

[XB70]

K50 DEL said:

My friend whose wife doesn't drive lived in Arabian Ranches for years, the local facilities there are great and there's a fast regular bus service to MOE..... just a thought!

Thanks :-)

Seems like the first step is school acceptance, then working out where to live from there.

I was on the phone to my wife a few minutes ago who said that places in Jumeriah Village Circle seemed good value for the money and close to Motor City where a new school is opening in Sept (and which has places).

Any thoughts on that area? I did comment that it was a very long way for me to get to work so I would need to buy a fast car in order to make this possible (true Pistonheads approach there!).

[XB70]

RSGulp said:

Thanks to K50DEL and fats25 for the emails and information.
K50DEL has kindly offered to show me and my wife a little of Dubai when we're there which is much appreciated.

Cheers for the response. I'm sure I'll have a load of questions as D-Day gets closer for us...

Looks like there are a few of us heading out that way - am sure we can start up a Saturday Service in the not too distant future *grin*

[dxbtiger]

Re Jumeirah Village Circle, its very undeveloped compared to the other places mentioned here, still a lot for them to finish, its a big development and will be years before its done (if it ever is). Jumeirah Village Triangle (where I am) is better in that regard but no communal pools. Access in and out is also better in JVT.

In terms of location it's not far out per say, looks it on a map but access to main arterial roads means its all much of a muchness.

The wife (and you probably) will not like the fact that JVC looks like a building site. Hasn't even got retail in the development, means a drive to Motor City or Springs to do a shop.

[K50 DEL]

Yep... the same friends ended up moving to JVC after Ranches rent went too high for them.
She was basically a prisoner in her own home for a year as there's no public transport there, no supermarkets, taxis are very hard to get and it's so open and underdeveloped that with the slightest wind the sand gets everywhere.

We won't even go into the build quality (water pipes filled with concrete, non-connected drains etc etc.

I would not under any circumstances recommend JVC.

JVT is a little nicer, it's closer to being finished though there's still little in the way of shops or leisure facilities and I don't believe any public transport.

With a partner who doesn't drive I'd really be sticking to the established areas with Ranches being your best choice.

[dxbtiger]

K50 DEL said:

Yep... the same friends ended up moving to JVC after Ranches rent went too high for them.
She was basically a prisoner in her own home for a year as there's no public transport there, no supermarkets, taxis are very hard to get and it's so open and underdeveloped that with the slightest wind the sand gets everywhere.

We won't even go into the build quality (water pipes filled with concrete, non-connected drains etc etc.

I would not under any circumstances recommend JVC.

JVT is a little nicer, it's closer to being finished though there's still little in the way of shops or leisure facilities and I don't believe any public transport.

With a partner who doesn't drive I'd really be sticking to the established areas with Ranches being your best choice.

We have a Supermarket now!!! Exciting times, opened a couple of weeks ago in the bottom of the Limitless Buildings (2 tall towers next to Al Khail, 15 min walk from my house)

Leisure facilities are limited to tennis and basketball courts, there are loads of those all over the development.

[shirt]

K50 DEL said:

She was basically a prisoner in her own home for a year

a bloody stupid move then!

JVC/T is already getting pricey, colleague just paid 200k for a 3 bed. he does have a double garage though.....

[XB70]

I had been reading that the rents were skyrocketing all across DXB :-(

OilyDan - you seem to have struck a bargain there! We will need to start looking at your area in greater depth

[dxbtiger]

shirt said:

a bloody stupid move then!

JVC/T is already getting pricey, colleague just paid 200k for a 3 bed. he does have a double garage though.....

Wonder what adding the extra bedroom cost the owner? All villas here are 2 beds but lots of the detached villas having extensions done.

XB70 said:

I had been reading that the rents were skyrocketing all across DXB :-(

OilyDan - you seem to have struck a bargain there! We will need to start looking at your area in greater depth

They've been on the up for a while and are slowing I think.

Dan's rent will be an old amount, whilst there may be value in Barsha they will certainly have gone up.

[Fats25]

dxbtiger said:

They've been on the up for a while and are slowing I think.

Dan's rent will be an old amount, whilst there may be value in Barsha they will certainly have gone up.

I have noticed the advertised price has jumped approx 10% for what I am looking for (3 or 4 bed Villa, with access to communal pool, garage) since when I started looking at Xmas. I hope they have slowed down - the rental cost is the big negotiating point in the package for the role I am looking at. It scares the hell out of me. If rent was approx 30% cheaper than it is now, I would have signed on the dotted line weeks ago!

Read this interesting article the other week.

http://gulfnews.com/business/property/uae/mohammad...

However that only helps if you are already paying a fair price, and I also have my doubts it will actually be enforced, and people will not find loopholes to get away with evicting and getting new tenants

[XB70]

Fats25 said:

I have noticed the advertised price has jumped approx 10% for what I am looking for (3 or 4 bed Villa, with access to communal pool, garage) since when I started looking at Xmas. I hope they have slowed down - the rental cost is the big negotiating point in the package for the role I am looking at. It scares the hell out of me. If rent was approx 30% cheaper than it is now, I would have signed on the dotted line weeks ago!

That is what we are factoring in too

[dxbtiger]

That law is enforced, what the indez says goes. Once you're in a property then you are actually pretty well protected as a tenant, its certainly a lot better than in AD which is basically a free marker and landlord has a lot more power.

If I use my own rent as an example, I moved in to the new place in Oct, rents have gone up by at about 20% since then, if was to have to renew today it would be at exactly the same amount I paid in October.

Its all about knowing what landlords can and can't do, not enough people know the laws though.

[XB70]

I saw this on another expat forum:

DUBAI: The UNESCO World Heritage Committee this morning called an emergency meeting in which it bestowed immediate World Heritage Site status on the last remaining flat in Dubai’s Marina district costing AED100,000 per year.

The one-bedroom apartment was due to have its rental price raised to AED140,000, with the landlord citing “Dubai’s recent Expo 2020 victory, the uncertainty in Crimea and the tragic passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman” for forcing up rates. But the swift move by the Heritage Committee ensures the property will be kept at its current level.

[Fats25]

dxbtiger said:

That law is enforced, what the indez says goes. Once you're in a property then you are actually pretty well protected as a tenant, its certainly a lot better than in AD which is basically a free marker and landlord has a lot more power.

That's good to know it works when you get into a property. Just trying to get into the property at a good start point is the key, as I don't imagine the rate will ever go down!!!