Sharjah rents also have gone up since the emirates road came up and also in ajman rents have gone higher due to emirates road.
I was personally looking into renting in sharjah a 1 bedroom and it was costing me 40,000 Dhs and 2 bedroom 50,000 Dhs but main problem as known is getting to Dubai for work in the mornings ... it takes 2 hours almost to get to Dubai .
I work in Dubai and my husband he works in Sharjah , this way staying in dubai though expensive is saving our time on the roads as i can walk to my work and my husband drives to work and there is hardly any traffic for going from dubai to sharjah as people's jobs r vice versa.


Sharjah in some places have more higher rents depending on how old the building is and what facilities are provided in it ....

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Nur

price increases with the quality of life: here is a brief description of three places I lived in.

In saudi arabia: SAR15000 for 3 bedroom house
grocery and everything cheap, no taxes, petrol cheaper than water, lots of savings, no traffic problems, no paid parking, RESTRICTIONS, natives prejudiced, rude. They hate you and know only arabic, local teens out of control, liveable as long as you dont get into trouble with saudis. not a place for settlement

In dubai: dhs 63000 (annual) for 2 bedroom apartment + facilities
high rents (major income reducer), bad traffic, paid parking, moderately priced grocery , natives are minority and not rude compared to other gulf countries(few spoilt local teens here may no be troublesome), not worth permanent settlement, only good for tourists

Burnaby(moved last month):
$1400 (monthly)-2 bedroom apartment + facilities
Tax is annoying, Houses a little expensive(much more than toronto) grocery, fruits, vegetables are very cheap. Restaurants and indian stuff may be expensive, people very polite, fresh air, beutiful city( I can see the grouse mountains and other snow clad mountains from 11th floor apartment), lots of greenery, best public transports system, no need of car, public transport system guides u to go from any address to any address, education system good, working hours are great compared to dubai, respect for all work, freedom, malls not bad. In summers days are as long as until 9 p.m. Don't know about winter. Climate better than rest of canada. GREAT place to live (inspite of less saving).

Winner: Burnaby, (Vancouver, b.c.)Canada

Hello,

I stayed in Dubai for 6+ Years. Worked as an IT Professional in MNC's. Was doing pretty well. Was offered a Managers role while leaving, did not take it becuase I wanted to moved to North America.

The way I look at it is your personal choice and priorities. Money is not everthing. Yes it is true that Dubai has tax free income, you will make tons eventually but where do you make use of that money. Built a house in India or somewhere - so what is the use. Now Dubai allows you to buy property, prizes of which are already sky rocketting and still it is not your property. It is a lease for 99 years. And to sell the property you will have go through the Shariya Law. Also not everyone can affort those kind of houses. Nothing is below the AED500K mark. Also just dont think that it is tax free income. People who rent houses pay the tax in form of the rent. You never any return for that. Traffic is absolutely crazy. No time of the day you will not find a traffic jam. People who get around the AED10K+- / Mth salary have to either share an appartment or live in Sharjah. Getting from Sharjah to Jebel- Ali where all the MNC's have their offices takes 1.5 Hrs every day each side and there is no 407. Also there are no colleges, schools are either mid-low standard or the good ones are too expensive. 90% of people send their children for higher education to North America. The best thing - after 30 years of working in Dubai or anywhere in the Middle East you will have to go back to your home country when you retire. How would that feel. I know people who had to do this. You will never grow to the highest level. Color and Passport plays a key role there. Arabs love to keep British / North American Passport holders on their key positions even if they are dum- asses. So does money help. Yes North America has its own minus pts but yes in the long run it will pay off. Freedom, education and quality of life. Most important the Passport. You will eventually be a Citizen eventhough a second class.

Now coming to the point what is the reason why it is getting so expensive in Dubai. Dubai has no oil and the only way they have to make money is Trade. They did pretty well in setting up the free trade zone and hence more and more companies are coming there. They was to make it like HongKong. They are much more libreal than the other GCC countries which gives then the edge and hence the demand is there. Supply is short - space is very limited. People are coming in like crazy just to make some quick bucks. And hence the hike in Property prizes and everthing else. The idea in Dubai is to convert every piece of land into a building. Remember 99 years lease - still the property is theirs and hence they keep making money on it.

Do remember one thing - Dubai how much advanced it becomes, it is will still remain a Middle-East country and Americans hate Middle-East. If somethings they dont care who it but they will make their point and the world knows about. Dubai tries to play safe by being a Allie to US but they also dont like the Americans.

For me personally moving to Canada was a good move - luckily I din't have to struggle that much being in IT and my past experience. Yes money is less but I am doing quite well and will grow even more. If I have to go back to Dubai - it would be only if I get an offer for $10K / Month or else never but not before I get my passport.

Hope this helps.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Fido

Herectic ,

A very nice and clear insight on the updated life @ Dubai .Thanks .

One very pertinent q comes to my mind ~ why is there always a queue for people to come in in these GCCs . And why the people already here are resistent to return .

Is it also bnot true that taking all factors in account life is still lot cheaper than Canada / Europe / West and the Govt subsidised a lot of things including food articles. A pepsi costs 1 Dh there , it costs $1 + here . Plus everything from cabs and electricity and everything is much cheaper . Plus the weather is good and Jumeirah is fun

Though I do agree that rents have gone up exhorbitantly and the 2nd class citizen argument plus the job insecurity and lack of permanence .

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Dear friends,

I am living in UAE, and seeing the steep cost increase in everything, and which is indirectly becoming unattractive to new investors / business community. The reason is the operational cost is also increasing in the more or less same percentage which is in turn reducing the profit margins. If the inflation is not controlled it will, in just couple of years the whole boom will burst like bubble. A simple example is enough to prove this. The rent for a business establishment is increased like for residential property and this will lead to decrease in profit margins, where as the sale/trade do not increase in same rate. Moreover as the cost of living increases, lesser people will have disposable income as they have to spend more on living costs. To say in a nut shell, the rents are the root cause of whole issue related to increase in cost of living and causing inflation. If the rents are not increased for next five yrs and leaving the price tags as it is, will see a steady and sustainable growth in Dubai. More over if all the emirates follow this rule the growth will be for all the emirates of UAE rather just Emirate of Dubai.

This thread has been complaining mostly about Dubai.
What about neighbouring areas such as Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Muscat Etc...
Are these places cindusive enough for a Cdn. Passport holder to go and get a job and live a life better than he lived in Canada?
From this thread, I am convinced that Dubai is no more a decent place to live and save money and that is why i am thinking about the neighbouring GCC countries. I got convinced because if a Dubai resident complains about his/ her life there, then it is very subjective. But if a person from Dubai immigrated to Canada and he loves his life in Canada (Majority) then the result can be taken as objective.
TK A

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

Give me one country where the residents do not bitch about things getting expensive , crime and lack of jobs , general mis-administration of things, traffic etc . All opinions are hence subjective and never objective. All countries are livable and people live in them .

It is only our perspectives that change with time and circumstances. I have seen people bitch about Canada a lot when their time is tough and they do not have a job. The moment they get their good jobs and start doing well, Canada suddenly becomes the best place for them. and mind you nothing changed in Canada except the person's own circumstances ..

Hence all opinions about countries as such are subjective and not objective ...

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We will find a way or we will make one

Dear friends,

(Hi TK) Its not only Dubai or say UAE which is having this trend in inflation growth, (people complaining) its grapping up similarly across GCC, may be as these countries are moving to more liberalized open market economy in compared to what it was following for decades and due to which some level of uncontrolled methods perhaps is leading to this. Among the GCC, mostly people who have lived or experienced the life in more than one GCC country can easily say every member country of GCC has its own merits and de-merits, but bottom line is, it’s not as lucrative as it used to be 3-5 years before in terms of savings and able to spend on lavish or say better life style comapred to in their home land

certain aspects one may feel good about in this part specially in UAE is more of subcontinent and Asian environment and closer to home land in comparison to Canada, but those who are not keen in keeping much contact with home land and have different aspects towards living (more of western life style) then such folks may not mind earning little less but living the life style of their aspirations in places like Canada,UK,USA,Autralia,NZ etc.

Smiley : I agree with you that every place has its own problems and people bitch about that place as long their circumstances are not as per their wish, once they are in better off ways then they will bitch less about the same place or even start praising it.

My two cents:
Grass is always greener on the other side, but what matters most is how much you graze of that which is on your side