Renting an apartment in Dubai
Contents of this article
Also check out the post about housing in Dubai for information on residential areas.
So, you have moved in the city, live somewhere in a temporary accommodation or with your friends and now you need to secure a place to live.
Jumeirah Beach Residence
If I were you I wouldn’t try to find an apartment sitting in your home country unless you’ve got somebody in Dubai who could have a look at the apartment, arrange the deal, etc. Trying to find an apartment remotely you actually risk being either fooled or ignored. And I am not sure if you can do that without having a valid visa.
Before you go, check currently available apartments and villas for rent on a local website, say dubizzle.com. That will give you an idea on what price you should expect, how many apartments there are for rent now, etc.
Dubai apartments and villas: basic principles
- Do not trust anyone but documents. It may sound a bit offensive but at least I and a colleague of mine had troubles with dodgy landlords when we were renting our apartments. Don’t think that you have secured the place until you have got a tenancy contract signed by the landlord. If the landlord is always ‘busy’, try to secure other options, because most likely he is trying to find another tenant who will pay more. Read about my experience below.
- Apartments are leased via dodgy agents. Vast majority of the apartments are leased via Dubai real estate agents. Many landlords are pretty rich and own quite a few apartments in the city. They hire a property management company that rents the apartments out via agents. A few agents can list the same apartment simultaneously; most of them have never seen the apartment they are trying to rent out! Beware classifieds without pictures with duplicating text, or the same location in line with the same square footage. That may be the same apartment featured by different ads. In many cases when you go to see an apartment with an agent, he or she won’t have the keys. You will go through the open back-door, see the apartment and your agent will call another agent who will also call another agent who directly deals with the management firm or the landlord. They will share their commission if you make a deal. I can recommend a lady who helped a couple of my friends to find the home. She works for a branch of a UK agency here, her name is Anastasia, mobile phone 055 720-7144.
- Hire a good agent. Probably the best option would be if you hired a relocation agent that would deal with real estate agents. If you don’t, you may also contact a real estate agency with good reputation; their agent will work on your case free of charge. He or she will get the commission only if he or she manages to find you a place. And of course it will be easier to deal only with one agent. A colleague of mine was satisfied with Better Homes, which is one of the largest agencies in Dubai. Working with a good company will make sure the landlord’s documents are not fake, so it gives you a bit of security over the deal.
- Agents normally don’t work on weekends and there is nothing you can do about it. You will have to seek for a place during working time on week days.
- Apartment hand over. Make sure that all appliances and furniture you agreed to keep in the apartment are in the contract. Otherwise, when you start screaming ‘I saw an oven over there’, you will hear ‘hold on, read your contract’. Make sure everything is documented. Before the apartment is handed over to you, the landlord should white-paint it. So will you have to do before you hand it back. Just make sure everything is the same as you agreed. If something in your apartment is agreed to be removed (e.g. a landlord’s table that you don’t need) make sure the due date and the fine for missing it is in the contract. You may be interested to read my experience below.
- Notifications. Read your contract carefully. It can be either renewable or non-renewable. If it is renewable you will have to inform your landlord whether you are going to stay next year in two or three months (per the contract) before the contract term ends. If you fail to do so, your contract will be renewed automatically and you will have to pay for the next year. If you would like to cancel your contract before its end date, you will also have to inform the landlord a couple of months in advance. So does he. Watch out the dates and conditions not to find yourself in an awkward position.
Dubai apartments pricing principles
- The price is always per annum. It sounds awkward but this is how the things work here. All landlords in Dubai ask for money for a year in advance in one cheque. And this can be goddamn much! Of course, if your company provides you with a housing allowance and pays that price to the landlord on your behalf, you benefit a lot. However, considering current downturn and its impact to Dubai’s properties, you will be lucky and landlords will be open to negotiate and may let you pay in 4, 6 or even 12 cheques, but you will have to pay a higher price for that. You will also have to issue 4/6/12 cheques with a future date of withdrawal and your tenancy contract will say something like ‘if the cheque is bounced on the payment date you will have to pay the fine of X dirhams’. Don’t try to cheat, this is not the country to do that. The punishment will be quick, severe but fair.
- Security deposit. It is usually 5% of annual rent, which you have to pay your landlord as a guarantee to pay the bills, not to do big adjustments to the apartment, etc.. He will return it back to you when you hand over the apartment at the end. So, it is refundable unless you destroy the apartment or escape leaving a bunch of unpaid bills.
- Agency fee. Normally it is also 5% of the annual rent price. This is not refundable and in most cases not avoidable.
- Always negotiate the price. The price landlords ask always includes some room for negotiation. Given the economy downturn you can negotiate a lot. It depends on a) your negotiation skills b) your agent’s ability to balance between you and other agents/landlord c) landlord’s desperateness to rent the apartment out. If you think your offer is fair but it is not accepted, and they are saying you that they have ten other potential tenants, 90% – they just lie because they don’t want to rent it out cheaper. They can call you tomorrow, in 3 days or after 3 weeks desperate to negotiate even more. However, try to see as many apartments as you can and negotiate on each of them. You will get your price, if you don’t bargain too much, of course.
Things to watch in the apartment itself
- Take a look out of all windows. Do not let famous Dubai construction you didn’t notice make you disappointed later.
- Check if there are a gym and a pool if they are claimed to be. They may be promised but don’t actually exist ‘yet’
- Check with the agent or the landlord, whoever makes the deal, what furniture and appliances are included in the price. Everything must be in the contract.
My story of renting an apartment
We arrived to Dubai in the beginning of March 2009. A month stay in a serviced apartment was paid by the company as well as Crown Relocations company, which facilitated the move and helped us find a place to live. We had 2 full days of a Crown’s agent paid, so we went out two times trying to find a place.
We said the agent that we need an apartment in either Dubai Marina or Jumeirah Beach Residence. She promised to find some options to see. However, we had also found a few options via Dubizzle and sent them to her to arrange a meeting.
So she arrived and we went out to find a place. She didn’t know what apartments we were going to see, we just met an agent who showed us her apartments, then met another agent. Honestly, I didn’t really like how the Crown agent managed that. She had arranged to meet a couple of her preferred agents who showed us apartments near construction, dirty apartments, etc. and we also saw a couple of the apartments that we found on Dubizzle. Actually, we didn’t like anything that she found herself. After 2 or 3 hours we already finished. We saw only 2 apartments that we liked. Both of them we found ourselves via Dubizzle and she only arranged the meeting.
One of them was a very lovely 1-bedroom apartment in JBR being rented out by English owners but they didn’t want to negotiate the price too much. Finally they discounted it after a couple of weeks or so, but it was too late.
Another place was also in JBR, it had full sea view, it was very nice and cheaper than the average those days. The landlord didn’t negotiate but we didn’t insist. So, we decided to make a deal.
After I had signed a contract, it took about a week of endless calls to Crown and to the agent to find out why it took that much time. Every single time they were telling me: Hold on. Everything is fine, the landlord is in a meeting today, he will sign the contract tomorrow. Finally I received a call from Crown. They told me that the landlord had found a tenant who paid a bit more. I was really angry at that kind of making deals. That was the start for understanding how the things are done here.
The very same day Crown arranged the second apartment hunting session. It was pretty much the same as the first time – a couple of agents, nothing to see really. After we had seen everything she had, we had 2 options neither of which we liked – one was just in front of a construction while another one was too expensive. I was really disappointed as our month-stay in the serviced apartment was due to end in a couple of days. I told the agent about my frustration and that I didn’t want to compromise, and she started looking for something else. Finally, she found another place in JBR which we liked from the first sight. We negotiated a bit and made a deal.
That time everything was done perfectly. The landlord’s managing company submitted the documents to Crown, they checked them and made a deal. We moved in the apartment in 3 or 4 days.
Although the apartment was fine, it was semi-furnished and there was some landlord’s furniture inside that we wanted to be removed. We couldn’t buy any furniture because there was just no room to place it.
It took a month to get the removal done, because the landlord wanted to sell the furniture rather than place it in a warehouse. He had published some ads on Dubizzle and started waiting for potential buyers. We had two sale sessions. First time, he expected about 5 people to come, see and buy the stuff but only one guy came. He bought only one piece which wasn’t the largest one. In about a week time, another meeting with 10 buyers was arranged. No one came! That was a shock for me. That would be never possible back home. If you say something, you either do it or call and say that you are not gonna do it. But there is no way you make other people waiting for you, because it just isn’t polite. But here it was completely different. People called, arranged a meeting and never came.
Finally after my complaints the landlord had to send his guys to remove the furniture.
The second issue re the apartment was an anti-insect net on the balcony door, which was torn and had to be repaired by the landlord. It took a few weeks for a carpenter to come and grab it and then another month to get it back.
That’s not it. Another issue was disgusting smell in the bathroom out of a hole in the floor. It had taken forever before someone from the facility management called me and asked what’s wrong. But by that time it had gone itself, so I just had to thank the guy and hanged the line.
Well, the move-into-Middle-East adventure had just begun… Later on I will post more issues that I faced re mobile phone, internet, electricity, air conditioning, furniture, medicine, driving license, etc. It was the Murphy law.
Dubai apartments and my colleagues
I was not the only who proved that the Murphy law works here.
My direct colleague had exactly the same problem with his apartment. He found a lovely place in the Old Town and was really happy about it. But after a week of calls he was disappointed the same way as I was. The dodgy landlord cancelled the deal because he found someone else.
Then, he found another apartment, also in the Old Town. He liked the apartment, but he didn’t have a look out of the window. That was a big mistake. The picture below explains everything. He couldn’t get used to it for a while, being awakened up by the construction traffic several times every night. His balcony is so dusty that sometimes he prefers to smoke in the apartment. So, watch out.
Famous Dubai Construction - the Old Town
Another colleague of mine hired Better Homes real estate agency, which made everything for him. He was quite happy with the job they’d done and would recommend it to seek for a place.
November 18th, 2009
i am new student in dubai.now i need to rent a apartment here.please assistant me.thank you
Hi,
Please look up dubizzle.com website.
Hi, you mentioned in your post above “Later on I will post more issues that I faced re mobile phone, internet, electricity, air conditioning, furniture, medicine, driving license, etc. It was the Murphy law.”
Please advise when can I get to read it.
I am moving with my wife to Dubai Marina from Mumbai, India in the middle of September and would be glad to get to know you. My office is in Almas Towers, JLT.
Hello!
FYI, Anastasia (mobile phone 055 720-7144) is no longer working as an agent.
I totally agree with you rgding Crown Relocation’s services. I really do not know how do they hire a relocation consultant these days. One of their consultant (a bored expat housewife who knows nothg but do not want to stay at home alone) irked my off so much that I decided to fire her!
In the end, I found my lovely unit in The Greens by dealing direct with agents (via Property Finder/Dubizzle/Better Homes).
Crown Relocation is really a lousy relocation co which do not provide any good service apart from driving you around for 2 days – showing u lousy units which do not even fit your initial requirements – and then try to force u to take whatever hv been shown. If they cud only use some intelligence and invest some time(to do proper research.
admin: Please note that this is an opinion of the reader, not the web site owner’s
Dealing with agents in International City is really frustrating. Most of them are lying scum.
I want a few things which don’t seem too unreasonable.
1. I want a contract in English (not Arabic)
2. I want a contract that complies with the rental law in Dubai (for example, a rental agreement can be automatically extended for the second year without any increase in rent. Most rental contracts try to avoid this but it’s not legal.)
3. When I hand over the rental cheques, I want a signed lease in my hands. Some agents just can’t do this and will argue for hours.
So far, I haven’t found an agent who can accomodate all this so I’ve settled for at least having a signed contract in hand before I handed over the rental cheques.
Sounds very much like any expat’s experience
you can use relocation consultants. They may make it easier for you. Not free of charge of course.
Hi Friend,
I am plannig to relocate to Dubai, IBM. The office is located in Dubai Internet City. Can you please suggest what would be the nearest best location so that I do not face commuting time while going to office? Also let me know the possible rent/month.
Hi Bhavesh, Dubai marina and surroundings are quite good, also the greens. Check the rent at dubizzle.com