# Housing Allowance



## BassMan_720 (Aug 20, 2008)

My offer has finally come through. It looks very good to me in comparison with my UK salary.

However, there is something I don't understand. Although my telephone negotiations related to the total package, the offer is broken down into several areas. In reading through the forum, I understand why this is done. I've been quoted 49,000 AED/month + benefits. Is this really as good a deal as it appears for a novice expat? The salary works out to a good increase over my UK salary before tax.

What I don't understand is how I've been quoted housing allowance. This has been listed as 125,000 AED (I know, it's not enough for a family sized villa, but I have enough salary to cover the extra). But it also lists Monthly deduction, 72,000 AED (which is much more than my monthly salary), and Net, 53,000 AED (which, possibly by coincidence is the allowance - Monthly deduction). What does all of this mean? 

Steve


----------



## Mocha (Jul 26, 2008)

It does look a little confusing for me - perhaps you could go back to them and clarify?

For me, my package is more straight forward. In essence, it is broken down into the following elements:

Basic Salary (60%)
Housing Allowance (25%)
Sundry Allowance (15%)

Plus other benefits, eg mobile phone, club membership, flight ticket home etc.

Whilst how your salary is broken down does not really affect how much money you receive, you will find that companies would try to give you a smaller basic and a bigger allowance - this is because gratuity and, in my case, bonus are calculated on your basic rather than your total monthly salary.


----------



## BassMan_720 (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks for the info

Finally sorted out the confusion. They are offering a Housing allowance cash lump sum of 125,000 AED. 6000 AED/month will be deducted from my 49,000 AED salary toward this leaving me with an extra 53,000 AED above my salary.

The deal is not now sounding so good. I have a family and will be after 3 bedroom accommodation. In trawling the Internet I'm not going to get much change out of 300,000 AED. That leaves me with a big lump sum to find.

Steve


----------



## Mocha (Jul 26, 2008)

No worries. As packages depends very much on the industry and experience, there is certainly no harm in asking around to test the water. I am in property myself but you will find lots of people working in different fields on this forum!

Good luck in the hunt!


----------

