# furnished ot unfurnished?



## Asc (Mar 6, 2011)

Hi everyone!

First I have to say that the info you can get from this forum is amazing 

I will be moving to Dubai in a couple of weeks and had a look at dubizzle and some real estate agencies. 

In order to know, if I should rather look for furnished, or unfurnished, I would like to know about the orice for furniture... I was looking at the hp of IKEA, but the range listed there is very limited. 
Could I get furniture for a 2BR appartment for around 20.000 AED or what amount are we talking about? 

Thanks a lot in advance


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

Depends on what you want to buy (for example I can make do with a 200 Dhs pair of curtains from Home Centre, 150 Dhs of curtain rods, and 100 Dhs in labour charges; but a colleague spent 1300 Dhs on her curtains). 20,000 Dhs can be very doable, if we are talking of the mid price stuff (and not the priciest stuff). Also, appliances would be extra (but most apartments even "unfurnished" come with appliances like refrigerators, washing machine etc.)

In general though, I would not look for a furnished apartment unless I am staying in Dubai for less than a couple of years for sure (1) There are fewer choices available, (2) the premium charged for a furnished apartment is much higher than what you would spend in furnishing it (e.g. the asking rent for a 2-bed furnished may be 140K when a similar unfurnished goes for 100K); (3) To a lesser extent, a consideration is that you can choose your own furnishings when selecting an unfurnished apartment

All the best with your decision


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## Gavtek (Aug 23, 2009)

I would say it depends on how long you plan to stay here. If it's under 2 years then probably look for furnished, but finding somewhere will be more difficult and finding furnishings to your taste even more so.

It is possible to furnish an apartment on a budget, however, there are lots of hidden costs that makes everything add up. For example, if you see a nice used sofa on Dubizzle, you'll need to factor in the cost of getting a man with a truck to deliver it for you, etc. 

And if you're like me, you'll have a budget in mind for certain things, like say a TV, but when you go to the shop, you'll see a better one for just a little more, and justify it to yourself, then you'll see a bigger one for just a little more and before you know it, you're knocking a hole in your roof so a crane can lower your new TV into your lounge and you're eating instant noodles for a month.


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## Asc (Mar 6, 2011)

Well, I guess I will have to move to AUH approx 2 years later, so I was thinking of getting a furnished appartment in DXB first... 

Well, good to know, that you are not laughing at this budget though 

I will have 1 month of paid accomodation when I get there and have to look around to sort things out anyway. 
and, yes, I also take more than I actually planed to spend when going shopping, Gavtek


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## NetMaestro (Dec 31, 2010)

I am in a similar position and decided to buy my own stuff for all the reasons mentioned earlier.

Just a question (pardon me, Asc), would it be easy to get rid of all the stuff in one go? I figure there will be some loss vs selling item by item but willing to absorb that hit. Anyone knows of an outfit that will buy all the used stuff lock, stock and barrel?

NetMaestro


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

Due to the transient nature of Dubai you can get loads of nearly new stuff cheap on Dubizzle. Not only single items but many people have "open days" where they are leaving everything is going. However you need to be checking Dubizzle a lot as the best/cheapest go very quickly.

Union Co-Op do cheap appliances and deliver too.


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