# Lowdown on Motor City



## AL85 (Aug 28, 2015)

Hello Everyone, 

I'm considering renting in Motor City and wanted to pick the brains of anyone who's willing. 

Any advice or recommendations would be more than welcome but I am specifically looking to know information regarding the below for a 1 bed unit:

1.) Monthly DEWA bills
2.) Monthly Chiller bills (do these exist in Motor City)
3.) Parking - We're going to have two cars, and only one spot in the carpark. Am I correct in thinking finding a park on the street is a nightmare?
4.) Thanks in advance!

A


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## FourAgreements (Mar 19, 2014)

Hi Al85

Here are my exact monthly bill amounts for the past 11 months. For reference, we lived in a south-facing, 1 bdrm. corner unit.

1. DEWA

584.91 (Oct. 2014)
586.97 
571.55 
685.51 
632.57 
647.76 
664.59 
662.03 
636.61 
430.06 (July - away for 1 month)
636.10 


2. EMICOOL. Yes, there is district cooling in Motor City. We kept the temp. around 21-22 degrees most of the time.

431.94 (Oct. 2014)
489.97 
348.38 
348.92 
326.68 
356.78 
481.37 
528.28 
602.05 
355.14 (July - away)
613.12 


3. PARKING

No, on-street parking is not a 'nightmare', but it may take a bit of looking around depending on which building you live in, how far you're willing to walk, and the time of day that your looking.

MC is pedestrian-friendly (well, more so than the rest of Dubai), lots of green space, flowers, flocks of parrots, generally good neighbours, etc. There are always little annoyances, so how well you like it will just depend on your tolerance level.

I will mention, though, that it seems as though all the water heaters/boilers are rapidly failing in many units. We had both of ours fail in our year there (2nd one failed 2 days before we moved out), and many of my friends and neighbours have had similar issues in the past couple of years. And whenever I walked around, I was always seeing boxes with new water heaters in them, outside the entries. 

All in all, I loved Motor City. We're currently in TECOM, and it's a DUMP compared to MC. 


4. You're welcome. Hope that helps. 





AL85 said:


> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I'm considering renting in Motor City and wanted to pick the brains of anyone who's willing.
> 
> ...


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## AL85 (Aug 28, 2015)

FourAgreements said:


> Hi Al85
> 
> Here are my exact monthly bill amounts for the past 11 months. For reference, we lived in a south-facing, 1 bdrm. corner unit.
> 
> ...


Wow - thank you so much FourAgreements!

Really appreciate all your detailed info. 

Excuse my ignorance but may I ask why your DEWA was still so expensive the month that you were away? I'd expect some cost due to small electricity usage like the refrigerator e tc but that seems really high. 

Also - how do your bills compare in Tecom? Just wondering if what you were paying in MC is pretty much the average for a one bed in Dubai?

Thanks, 
A


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## BedouGirl (Sep 15, 2011)

This has also helped me as I'm planning to move there next year. My friends live there and I'm pretty sure their bills aren't quite so high (they have a ground floor corner unit).


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

AL85 said:


> Excuse my ignorance but may I ask why your DEWA was still so expensive the month that you were away? I'd expect some cost due to small electricity usage like the refrigerator e tc but that seems really high.


Probably because of the housing fee?
A 100K rent apartment will have a housing fee of 416 AED per month


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## FourAgreements (Mar 19, 2014)

As rsinner pointed out ^^, there is a housing fee component to each bill. Our rent was 83k, so 5% divided by 12 = 345.83 minimum monthly Dewa bill.

We also did not shut off our AC completely while we were away; I think we left it at 27 degrees. So the fan would have been running periodically. I didn't want to come home to a moldy apt. And of course, the fridge was plugged in. But not much else.

I believe our MC rent was minimally higher than the going average, as we rented through Better Homes. It's my understanding that rents have stagnated out there, though. Ours wasn't going up, had we decided to stay.

I can't compare our bills to Tecom, as we have moved into a hotel apt. as we prepare to leave Dubai... lane: some days I'm  , other days I'm .







AL85 said:


> Wow - thank you so much FourAgreements!
> 
> Really appreciate all your detailed info.
> 
> ...


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## AL85 (Aug 28, 2015)

Ah yes, I'd heard about the housing fees and of course promptly forgot!

Thank you again for all your inside information. I really do appreciate it.

Might do a bit more more research on some of the other communities before we sign away the next year. 

Good luck on your next move wherever that is FourAgreements!

Cheers, 
A


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