# Moving to Dubai from London



## espanol21 (Feb 8, 2011)

Hello,

I am a spaniard working for an american company in London, I am moving in a month to Dubai, my employer will maintain my salary there (40.000 GBP around 240 000 AED, plus health insurance, pension plan, life insurance, ect) will be traveling to South Africa, Angola in Botswana 2 weeks per month with everything paid there but wondering if 240K AED should be enough to rent a 1 bedroom apartment and buy small car as for instance a peugeot 308, well and have a nice life and be able to save a bit at the end of the month? I joined the company 6 months ago and have 2 years of experience.

Thanks in advance!!! Gracias!


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## Gavtek (Aug 23, 2009)

Unless you develop a drug habit or an addiction to expensive champagne, you should manage just fine on that salary I would think.

Rent + Car Loan/Hire should be around AED 10k per month as a ballpark figure. The rest is yours to live on, save and pay the bills.


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## dizzyizzy (Mar 30, 2008)

espanol21 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am a spaniard working for an american company in London, I am moving in a month to Dubai, my employer will maintain my salary there (40.000 GBP around 240 000 AED, plus health insurance, pension plan, life insurance, ect) will be traveling to South Africa, Angola in Botswana 2 weeks per month with everything paid there but wondering if 240K AED should be enough to rent a 1 bedroom apartment and buy small car as for instance a peugeot 308, well and have a nice life and be able to save a bit at the end of the month? I joined the company 6 months ago and have 2 years of experience.
> 
> Thanks in advance!!! Gracias!


Hola,

Yes this is a very package for a single person at junior level. A 1 bedroom will set you back at 50K-70K depending on the area (even cheaper if than that if you decide to sacrifice location), the car you want should cost you no more than 2.5K per month, half the time you will be traveling so your expenses be covered, etc. So sounds very doable and you should be able to save some money at the end of the month provided you don't go crazy brunching/shopping/drinking.


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## w_man (Apr 16, 2010)

As everyone already said - it's certainly doable but I would try to get your employer to pay for the rent or at least give you some level of a housing allowance. This is fairly normal for western expats and an American company should know this. 

Unless of course the figure you mentioned above includes the housing allowance?!? But if that's only your salary then I would push for a housing allowance. That way you can save even more 

Just my .02


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## espanol21 (Feb 8, 2011)

Thanks a lot for the info it is really useful! at least now I know I will be fine! 

I will try to get a higher salary but I doubt they will pay for my rent as I am not going as an expat, I could be doing the same job in London but decided rather to do it in instead

How much would be approximately to buy a car? something small as for instance a peugeot 308? I heard you cannot get loans in UAE can I still pay it monthly?

Gracias!:


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## Laowei (Nov 29, 2009)

Car loans are very easy to get in the UAE, need a residence visa, bank account etc. Interest rates are quite good as well. Most of the dealers are franchised to big groups such as Al Futtaim for Honda, Toyota etc and as such use 1 bank, my loan was done through Dubai Islamic bank interest was 3.99% and zero deposit. 

Leasing a car is also fairly popular and 2500 per month should get you something decent.


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## espanol21 (Feb 8, 2011)

Thanks for the info! I am assuming insurance must be really expensive as I heard people drive a bit crazily over there??

And one last question... how does the cheques work when renting a house? if it is 2 cheques you have to pay the rent in two payments? whats the normal procedure? how many cheques? THANKS


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## dizzyizzy (Mar 30, 2008)

espanol21 said:


> Thanks for the info! I am assuming insurance must be really expensive as I heard people drive a bit crazily over there??
> 
> And one last question... how does the cheques work when renting a house? if it is 2 cheques you have to pay the rent in two payments? whats the normal procedure? how many cheques? THANKS


Well yeah it is what it is, I don't think is ridiculously expensive though, perhaps because is also expensive back home.

Re. the cheque business, it all depends on the landlord. Trying to negotiate 3 or 4 cheques now is expected, but some of them will agree and others won't. It all depends on how desperate they are I guess. If you pay in 1 cheque you can push them to give you a better price (say 5K less of the yearly rent). The cheques are post dated and cover 3 or 4 months in advance. i.e. my cheque for february includes feb/march/april. You'll also need to pay the agent fees if you are not renting directly from the landlord (around 5% of the yearly rent).


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