Living costs in Dubai

[Oatsinajar]

Hi,

We are considering a move to Dubai, and I'm trying to work out whether it'll be worthwhile financially. I've had a look at figures and rent prices really vary. We'd be looking for a 2/3 bed flat. We also need to place 1 child into school, and probably spend quite a bit on outings. How much would you need per month to live comfortably but not extravagantly?

I m assuming you be on a contract, and if that is half decent accommodation, healthcare and school fees will be taken care of, along with annual flights for the family back to the point of hire.

W are not in Dubai, but we are nearby. Our family of 4 lives quite nicely off the equivalent of £3600 per month, but we try not to be too flash with the cash

Rents vary hugely by area - for a 2/3 bed apartment you could pay anything from 120k dirhams to 300k dirhams plus!

Do you know where you'll be working and any potential schools yet? Then you can start to narrow down areas

Living expenses are pretty high. We are a family of 4, DCs 6 and 8. I spend a minimum 1200dhs a week food shopping, utilities in summer can be up to 3000dhs a month, we run 2 cars..... Petrol is cheap but as I drive a lot I fill up around twice a week.

Schools also vary, there was huge demand last few years so lots of new schools opened with crazy fees. Mine are at an older established school and we pay 50k dirhams a year for fees.

We get a housing and school allowance - it doesn't cover it completely so we top up by around 30%

We also get medical cover for all of us and a set of flights home per year

Feel free to pm me more details and I'll see if I can help!

We love Dubai, have had a great few years here and it's been fantastic for the kids. It's expensive but a wonderful experience!

JoandMax Thank you so much for sharing that, its all really useful. The details are being finalized, and once that's done, I will drop you a PM if that's OK. We are thinking of living quite close to the airport but tbh I'm more keen on living close to the school we choose.

Have you looked at schools fees and called re availability? Dubai school fees seem to be the highest in the gulf, although they vary enormously. School fees will be published on school websites. Generally cheap fees + school with good reputation = no places but it will depend on age of your child.

Note that booklover's amount (presumably around AED 18k per month) does not include the cost of housing, schooling or medical. I'd actually say the norm is to have to top out both schooling and housing in nearly all but the most generous packages (although if you are happy to live in a flat you might not need to top up housing). Also, Dubai law doesn't require employers to provide family medical insurance, they only have to provide to the employee so quite a few companies (including decent ones like mine) won't provide family medical.

Don't forget to factor in loss of employer pension contributions, particularly if you're public sector at the moment. When I moved out I massively underestimated the value of these when calculating package equivalent.

I'm also not actually in Dubai so can't help on exact accommodation costs but I've looked at moving to the big smoke recently and decided the uplift on package DH would get wouldn't cover additional costs.