Moving to Abu Dubi with 2 children 10 years old

[hotairball]

Abu Dhabi (it wont let me edit, sorry)

I would live some help in location and schools.

Our job will be in Al Maryah Island.

We will be looking to live somewhere where we can buy a villa. We have a fair amount to spend so looking for high end areas (i know most are) with families.
What are the 2 top areas we could move to where it would be a maxium of a 20mins drive to work.

we would also be looking for an academic school (british) school within a 15 min drive from our home.

Any help will be much appreciated.

xxxx

Saadiyat Island seems to be the place to be. It's upmarket and it's the cultural area of Abu Dhabi.

My dd moved there with my dg4 in February.

She attends Nord Anglia English school, Al Reem.

Everywhere seems to be a 20 or 30 minutes drive.

It's the most perfect, safest country I've been to. I'm flying out again next week on babysitting duties.

Good luck with your new life.😁

safety is why we are moving there.

Thank you.

I currently have a 6min drive for school drop off…
I will miss that.

If I was to start my life over it's definitely the place I'd move to.

I have never felt so safe anywhere else in the world.

Your children are the perfect age to embrace Emirati life.

I love that everyone finishes work and school 12.30pm on a Friday and it's just so lovely to have that extra half day to start your weekend.

The water is safe, beaches are clean, I'm going to learn paddle boarding next week whilst I'm there.

It's all about working hard and playing hard. There's loads of beach clubs if that's your thing. Loads of great places to eat OMG and Ice cream...wow. Remember the name... J Lato the most amazing gelato ever.

Only downside is that it takes ages to get anything official done.

Why would you buy in this highly volatile market where you have to pay for visas to exist in your own house?

Thats a great question. I find the UK is so unsafe and crime is high. My children have witnessed a daylight mugging at knife point, car thieft, phone mugging and general disgust in london. We live in an affluent area yet we cant hide the disgrace this country has become. I am british born and i would hav even never thought id be saying this 20 years ago. Its just the sad reality. Id love for my children to be free and feel safe.

That’s the exact reason my dd left London for Abu Dhabi.

Saadiyat and Jubail would be the areas to look at buying.

For a British curriculum school, the sought-after schools are Cranleigh (on Saadiyat), BISAK (in the city) and Nord Anglia, although personally the latter is too far a drive from Saadiyat for me.

Opening in the next two years will be Harrow (on Saadiyat) and Gordonstoun (on Jubail) so there will be more school options

This is really good to hear. Thank you so much. I will research about Harrow as i feel we will end up living in Saadiyat.

Thank you

Saadiyat and Jubail are very close to each other, really do look at both. Schools on Saadiyat are a very easy commute from there (I know many that do it). I’ve been very impressed by the build quality in Jubail.

If you PM me I can give you the details of an estate agent I liked working with. It’s like the US system here, the properties are accessed through your agent and different agents have different properties available. There’s no RightMove!

How about Dubizzle?
https://abudhabi.dubizzle.com/

Are you moving for children to start school in August? Term starts on 25th. Most good schools are already full so you'd better base your location on where you can find a space. Plenty of villa communities on Yas Island too, Reem is entirely apartments, Saadiyat is mixed but relatively expensive.

Hi, it wont be for this year but next school year.

Isn’t it illegal to be gay in Abu Dhabi? That doesn’t sound free and safe at all. Sounds horrific.

quite the opposite IMO

@hotairballit IS illegal to be gay in the whole of the UAE. So I wouldn’t raise DC there.

Not everyone is concerned with whether they can be gay in Abu Dhabi - some people just looking for somewhere safe to raise their kids. Plenty of western families in AD who seem to be enjoying it despite their so called inability to be gay in Abu Dhabi.

But it's hardly safe if one of your kids turn out to be gay, is it?

Then leave.

OP I've lived in the region for around 20 years, including 4+ years in Abu Dhabi. I'm now in Dubai and own a house in Dubai.

I would not buy a house in Abu Dhabi - it is a completely different real estate market to Dubai because areas in which non-Emiratis can purchase houses are very limited. This means that the prices are (in my view) highly inflated and (more importantly) the market is relatively illiquid - if you need to sell for some reason you may find you cannot shift your house even for much less than you would consider to be the market value.

It all depends on your motivation for buying, but I would think very carefully before deciding to buy in Abu Dhabi.

[And just to be clear - I'm not saying I wouldn't live in Abu Dhabi. I'm saying I wouldn't buy property in Abu Dhabi even if I moved back there]

This is really helpful. From what i have seen, in the last 2 years theres a gear to getting more expats to move there due to more job opportunities.
When did you live in AD?
Im hoping it is changing as our plan is to buy as rent is just like london prices.

It’s more about raising DC around hate and intolerance. And condoning that hate and intolerance by moving there.

And let's not forget the modern day slavery. I wouldn't be using any of my money to fund a country like that

Such interesting views. Currently, we are funding 45% of our salary on England where youth casually shop lift, mug and stab with zero fear. Hardly a country to be proud of funding. Police are shit, laws are laughable and streets are scum. Saying that, I understand your view on intolerance and that said is probally what we in this country are lacking.

Well, the chief difference in the UAE is that the impoverished underclass are (1) imported and (2) when not working in poor conditions, frequently in dangerous heat, are kept in heavily-guarded labour camps in the desert, only to be trucked in again for work. But that’s ok, because they’re not shoplifting or trying your car door.