# Moving to dubai? cost of schools and housing??



## Nathalie2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Dear all,
Husband has an offer to go work in dubai and has an allowance for schools and renting house/app. We have our doubts to do it or not...It would help if we know the costs for schools and housing?? We are a family of 4 (2 kids 3 and 6y old). No idea what an international school will cost for them...Also need a house that can accommodate the 4 of us and that is in nice area etc..but what will it cost more or less?

Is it nice living in Dubai with family? 
Thanks for your information!
Regards,
Nathalie


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Schooling: for your children's age anywhere between 30,000 to 60,000 AED per child. Obviously the more expensive the 'better' the school.

Housing: a 3-4 bedroom villa in an established neighbourhood: between 130,000 to 250,000 AED. Obviously the higher the rent the 'nicer' the villa. On top of the rent you need to factor in the monthly utilities cost which will probably start at 1,000 AED and go up to as much as 5,000 AED in the summer months.


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## Nathalie2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks for the info. 
We are googling and are finding arabain ranches very nice and affordable. 
Is the Jess school (that I understand is located in the arabian ranches?) a good school..fees look also reasonable there. 

Is a basic salary of +-22 000 AED enough? (husband is engineer with 10y experience). He will also get allowance for school 2500 per child and housing 8000pm, is this a reasonable offer, you think??

I am just asking as I am reading stories that Dubai is so expensive..


Thanks for the help!


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## Ogri750 (Feb 14, 2008)

If he is getting no other allowances in his salary, for the four of you, it works out to 35k per month.

22,000
8000
2500 x 2

Not enough I'm afraid


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## Nathalie2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks for the answer..
To us this offer sounded reasonable (if we compare it to what we earn now), very curious why you think this will not be enough..Is it cost of living? are there things (costs?) we aren't aware off...
We are new to this expat-salaries and packages..so all tips are welcome
We are very keen to take the step, but also don't want to move to Dubai to struggle..
Thanks again


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## Ogri750 (Feb 14, 2008)

You need to factor in other costs if they are not included.

Transport - Do you need 1 car or 2
Flights home
Medical Cover
Dewa 
Commitments back in your home country that will need paying
Moving costs

You could manage it on 35k, but there may not be much left over.

There are cheaper options for housing. I pay 73k per year (approx 6k per month) for a 3 bed town house, but it is in an area which still needs work. Schooling can be cheaper, this depends on the school etc


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## Ogri750 (Feb 14, 2008)

The offers when you receive them do all sound great, especially when they are tax free. There is a reason that the salaries seem great. Higher cost of living here


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

It is very expensive to live in Dubai.

A three-bedroom villa at Arabian Ranches or the Springs will probably cost you close to 150,000 AED for the rent + annual utilities expenses. That's 12,500 AED a month.

Even a cheaper villa in Mirdiff or Jumeirah Village Triangle that you might get for 90,000 AED will still cost 7,500 AED a month, and then you have the utility bills on top of the rent. Dewa + tv/internet package will cost you at least 1,000 a month and probably closer to 1,500 when you factor in the 5% annual housing tax.

JESS is very popular and has closed its waiting lists for the next five years. You will not get a child into JESS but there are other perfectly good schools in Dubai. Odds are you'll have long drives to the school.

You *can *live on the income offered but it's highly unlikely you will save much money. Even sticking to a tight budget you will probably have to add to your housing allowance and school fees from the basic salary. Then there's the living expenses.

Weekly groceries for a family of four will cost between 800 to 1,000 AED and plenty people spend more. 

Dining out at a western-style restaurant for a family of four will be between 150-200 AED, not including alcohol. Add one drink for each adult the tab is now close to 300 AED.

Cost of operating and running two family cars. Petrol may be cheap, but there's insurance and car payment or car rent. A cheap rental car is 2,000 AED a month and another 400-500 AED for petrol. Children's entertainment in Dubai are rarely free and cost quite a bit of money. 

I don't intend to scare anyone off from coming to Dubai but it is a very expensive city and the package offered to you is on the low end for a middle class western expatriate family wanting to live the middle class western lifestyle. What's been offered to you is doable if you don't mind not saving a lot of money and don't mind being very careful with your expenses and avoid splurging out on unnecessary items. You can also save money by living in an apartment over a villa. 

It is also very expensive to move to Dubai. The costs of setting up housekeeping is ridiculously high. You will need to pay the agent 5% fee when you've found a villa/apartment you want to rent. Rents are usually paid between 1 - 4 cheques although some people have found landlords willing to accept 6 cheques. Deposits need to be paid for the utilities. Then you need to initially hire cars. All of this adds up even before your husband's first salary cheque's come through. 

My suggestion is to carefully look over the terms and conditions of the package offered and what else is also being offered. You should get annual flights back to Belgium per year for each family member. You should get comprehensive health insurance via BUPA or RSA. You should get relocation costs included, as well as repatriation costs for when you decide to return to Belgium. Does the company offer to pay your housing allowance in one cheque or is only monthly? Are the school fees fixed or will they increase yearly? (school fees in Dubai go up every year). All these are little details which could cost you or save you a lot of money in the long run.

Above all, negotiate back. If you can increase the overall value of your package up to 40,000 a month you'll be better positioned. I'd ask for the basic salary to be bumped up to 25,000 a month and the housing to 10,500 a month.


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## Nathalie2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Much higher cost? 

What would a family of 4 more or less need to have a normal life there? I know it is a very vague question and depends on your life style, but no extreme, just average life style ;-)
Medical cover is also included in his package and 1 flight per year. Transport not covered and what is dewa?
Have to decide by end of the week :-6
Thanks


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## Nathalie2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks ThallyHo for your information. It is very useful. Thanks for taking the time to explain it so in detail, that is a big help.
I think we will try to negotiate with the company..Fingers crossed!
So Jess is not an option..:-( What other good schools that are reasonably priced would be an option, you think?

Nathalie


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## Kawasutra (May 2, 2011)

If I am the employer, I would hire someone on a local contract for 20k all in and for this salary I get thousands of applications from high skilled people.
Thats the contradiction, keep this in mind....


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Dewa is the local utilities organisation that provides water/electricity. People receive monthly dewa bills for their utilities. 

This is a monthly breakdown for a middle class family in Dubai living in a cheaper villa in Mirdiff:

Housing: 7,500 a month (but payable in three cheques of 30,000 each three times a year)

Dewa + housing tax:1,000 AED

Tv/Internet package (the cheapest possible package): 300 AED

Petrol/insurance/servicing for two cars (assuming you buy second hand cars in cash with no monthly payments): 2,000 AED

School fees: 6,000 AED at the cheapest schools.

Miscellaneous monthly school-related expenses (trips, uniforms, gifts): 500 AED

Groceries: 3,500 AED 

Dining out/entertainment (assumption you eat out once a week/movies/children's play area): 2,000 AED

Miscellaneous expenses: 1,000 AED

So far we're up to about 24,000 AED every month just on the basics and not including any car payments/car rental fees.

If you have a standard car payment or rent two cars: 4,000 AED per month.

Now we're up to 28,000 AED.

You're still left with 7,000 AED per month to go into your savings. That's 1,400 euros. Out of this you will need to pay for clothes, holidays, cleaning services, miscellaneous expenses, any new furniture and so forth. Now you see how you can easily end up with no savings at the end of the year?

As I mentioned earlier, you can survive on 35,000 a month by being judicious on where you live and what you spend. The big danger is that school fees go up each year, and rapidly so. If your husband doesn't get salary increases you could be crippled by the fee raises. 

Between 40,000 to 50,000 puts you on firmer footing.


Other decent schools in Dubai include Regents, Dubai British School, Emirates International, Safa, Wellington, Uptown Primary...



Nathalie2 said:


> Much higher cost?
> 
> What would a family of 4 more or less need to have a normal life there? I know it is a very vague question and depends on your life style, but no extreme, just average life style ;-)
> Medical cover is also included in his package and 1 flight per year. Transport not covered and what is dewa?
> ...


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