[Yankdownunda]

Hi everyone,


I know it has been touched on but can't seem to find what I'm looking for in my case. I'm moving to Dubai in about 3 weeks from Australia. My partner and 7 month old child will join me in Jan 2014. I have 3 good months to sort accommodation before they arrive. Will be working on palm jumeirah at Anantara resort.

Salary isn't finalized but roughly 500k AED a year. I am looking for a 2 bedroom / 2 bath townhouse or nice apartment. Nothing to extravagant as we are moving there to live for 2-3 years and hope to come home with a lot of savings. Can you recommend a good area for a 30 year old couple with small child with expats around. Want my wife to be able to meet people while I'm working so much. Also would you suggest buying a car or taxi daily to palm jumeirah? Is traffic super crazy?

Thanks everyone

 

[dizzyizzy]

Well, if you will be working at The Palm, then I'd think that would be the obvious choice to look for housing?

And have a look at these threads

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/du...4-ultimate-guide-renting-apartment-dubai.html

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/du...iving-dubai/82210-cars-driving-questions.html

 

[Yankdownunda]

Thanks heaps!

 

[TallyHo]

It depends on how much savings you want to take home after 2-3 years.

If you're serious about saving money, the best option is to rent a simple 2-bed flat in TECOM or the Greens for 100K and buy two 5-year old Pajeros for 40K each. Both TECOM and the Greens are very handy for the Palm and everything in that end of Dubai is expat friendly (by which I mean western expat friendly).

Living on the Palm is expensive and taxis add up quickly.

If you're living in New Dubai and working on the Palm, traffic isn't going to be an issue unless you live in JLT.

Once you get to Dubai and are on the ground, you'll quickly get the lay of the land and what's affordable/what's not and the tradeoffs and what's feasible for you. I will say the temptation to spend a lot of money here is real and plenty of people with your type of income blow through most of it and take home minimal savings. But if you're pragmatic and firm about expenses you can live nicely enough and save quite a lot.

Hi everyone,


I know it has been touched on but can't seem to find what I'm looking for in my case. I'm moving to Dubai in about 3 weeks from Australia. My partner and 7 month old child will join me in Jan 2014. I have 3 good months to sort accommodation before they arrive. Will be working on palm jumeirah at Anantara resort.

Salary isn't finalized but roughly 500k AED a year. I am looking for a 2 bedroom / 2 bath townhouse or nice apartment. Nothing to extravagant as we are moving there to live for 2-3 years and hope to come home with a lot of savings. Can you recommend a good area for a 30 year old couple with small child with expats around. Want my wife to be able to meet people while I'm working so much. Also would you suggest buying a car or taxi daily to palm jumeirah? Is traffic super crazy?

Thanks everyone

 

[Yankdownunda]

Don't seem to see many furnished properties. Was wondering if it is easy to find or if I think about relocating furniture.

 

[QOFE]

If you rent a furnished apartment you pay a lot more and usually it's for quite foul tasted bling.
The difference in a furnished/unfurnished apartment in the same block could be up to AED 20,000. A lot of people here but second hand on dubizzle as the ex-pat turnover is high. Other options are cash converters on SZR and Ikea.

 

[dizzyizzy]

I agree, renting furnished especially if you plan on staying long term, is a waste of money and most of the furniture you'd get is absolutely hideous. Tons of good, cheap furniture and huge second market with so many expats leaving every day (check Dubizzle), and if all fails, there's IKEA!

 

[Yankdownunda]

Just what I wanted to hear! Thought with expat turnover must be heaps of nice second hand. Thanks again.