Matt: I missed a month, there is no excuse but safe to say things have been pretty busy. Most notable of all, I've moved house. The renting situation here in Dubai is, quite frankly, a joke! It's a landlords and real estates market. Things are stacked again the tenants so heavily and nothing is being done. Let me explain. Firstly prices are high to rent and raising, that's never a good thing for a tenant, The Landlord become greedy, the own the properties and 2 years ago were renting these properties for up to a third of what they're gong for now - the landlords overheads haven't changed at all. Secondly, here in Dubai you have to pay upfront.. sometimes in one cheque if you're lucky 2 or 3 post dated cheques. So you spend half your annual salary in one go, then you have to pay deposits for the house, the water and electricity, the telephone, internet and TV. Stack on the the whopping 5% agents fee from the estate agents and you start to see the problem.
There is no incentive for the agents to get you a good deal, after all the more you end up paying for your rent the more money they get. The more you pay for rent the happier the landlord is and he's more likely to use said estate agents for the next property he rents after all he probably bought the entire street 5 years ago when it was built and paid about the same to buy as you're now paying to rent it. Ok, slight exaggeration but not all that far from the truth.
But demand is still high, so rents will continue to climb. There is a statutory 7% rent cap, but even that is faulting as there are ways around it for the Landlords. Estate Agents need to work on the side of the tenant, have incentives to reduce the rent cost for people. It doesn't seem right that I am now paying 3 times the rent I was for exactly the same property as I was in 3 years ago when I moved here.
Why don't you just buy Matt? Well that's the plan, but when you are effectively self-employed, you need 3 years audited accounts to get a mortgage and as the company has only been registered 7 month, that's pretty tricky to achieve.
Any way, I bit the bullet, I moved to a another 2 Bed villa in the Springs, nice little garden, 30 seconds to the community pool and park and I'll be a house owner out here before the rent is due again. I'm determined.
Other than living arrangements other notables are Motocross biking in the desert - what a buzz. Having never ridden a motor bike before starting your experience off road in the desert is, well.. probably a bit dumb. But I've been wanting to try it out for a while now. So I did. The 5 am wake up and 40 minute drive to the meeting point where I'd have my first biking experience was, decidedly, abhorrent. As for the ride itself. After a nervous start and a spectacular fall, I started to get to grips with it. Man you gotta love the freedom of the desert.
Planning another ride soon, so I'll be sure to get some pictures this time! :)
