As Dubai is an expatriate city, all utilities and telecommunications are made easy to connect and pay by tenants themselves. All contracts will be set at your name, so that you won’t need your landlord to be involved. It will be your responsibility to connect the services, pay the bills and disconnect the services when you leave the apartment.

Normally, when you move in, all services should have been disconnected by the previous tenant (or the owner), but this may not have been done. Then you may face a hassle of chasing the landlord to pay the outstanding amounts and disconnect the services. Ask your landlord for confirmation of disconnection of the services.

Monthly payments summary (1-bedroom apartment in JBR), 2 people

These are my average monthly payments:

• Electricity & water (DEWA): 300 AED (55 EUR, 82 USD)

• Air conditioning (Empower): 300 AED (55 EUR, 82 USD) monthly + 800 AED (146 EUR, 218 USD) quarterly

• Landline + broadband internet 512 Kbps + TV: 234 AED (43 EUR, 64 USD)

Total: 1100 AED (201 EUR, 300 USD) a month with the quarterly charge split by 3 months.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)

Before you move in your new Dubai apartment, you will have to connect electricity and water. To do so, you need to apply for services in DEWA‘s office.

The procedure for activation of the service can be found in DEWA’s official guidance. Check also the consumer guide. After you have done the connection procedure, the service will be switched on and you can start your new life in Dubai.

Note that you will have to pay a refundable deposit of 1000 AED (183 EUR, 272 USD) for an apartment or 2000 AED (366 EUR, 544 USD) for a villa.

Bills will be issued every month for electricity and water in a single bill. I pay around 300 AED (55 EUR, 82 USD) for a 1-bedroom apartment every month. However, this price does not include the air conditioning as the a/c services are charged differently in JBR (see below). If you live in an area where air conditioning consumes electricity, your bill should be higher.

I would recommend subscribing for electronic bills, then you will receive your bills via e-mail and will be able to pay them online with your credit card at DEWA Online Bill Payment.

Air conditioning

A/c is always central in Dubai. Normally, your landlord should tell you whether you need to apply for Empower services. If you don’t need Empower services, you may just jump to the next section.

Otherwise, you will need to connect to Empower. I know that Jumeirah Beach Residence and in The Palm Jumeirah are serviced by Empower. Probably, they service other districts as well. Empower uses water to cool buildings. Read more about how they do that at their official website. Very interesting reading.

To connect the service, you will need to apply for it at an Empower’s office. Check the official website for the contact phone number and locations.

Empower billing is a bit tricky. You will be charged a consumption charge every month depending on how much cooling you have consumed, and also you will be charged the quarterly demand charge regardless of consumption. Bills will be issued monthly and can be paid only at certain locations, which is not really convenient. I would recommend you going to the Head office and setting up auto-debiting from your credit card. That will save a lot of time later.

Normally, I pay around 300 AED (55 EUR, 82 USD) consumption charge and around 800 AED (146 EUR, 218 USD) quarterly demand charge. My wife is at home during the day, so the a/c is almost always on. If you will be out of home during the day, your charges should be lower.

Landline + broadband internet + TV

All three services are provided by either of UAE’s telecom providers: du or Etisalat.

You will need to connect the service in one of providers’ branches. I haven’t been able to compare quality of service of the providers. Well, you won’t be able either, because only one provider is available in a particular area. Check out their websites for locations. Normally, showrooms are present in each of the major malls.

Local landline calls are included in the monthly charge, calls to mobiles are charged separately. Don’t know the exact cost but it is not expensive.

JBR is serviced by du. I enrolled for ‘Home Plus’ package, which includes landline (they provide a telephone as well), 512 Kbps internet and about 60 TV channels (they provide a decoder). There are Ethernet sockets everywhere in the apartment, however, you may also want to buy a wi-fi router. It can be bought in any electronics shop like Sharaf DG, Plug-ins or Jacky’s.

I pay 234 AED (43 EUR, 64 USD) for that.

Internet and censored content in Middle East

You may have heard a lot about blocked websites in UAE. Well, that’s true. A lot of websites are blocked here. If you would like to know more, read here. Briefly, they block websites containing abusive, anti-Islamic and adult content. The list of blocked websites also includes Flickr. Personally, I don’t understand that. Although Flickr contains some erotic, there are much more sites featuring erotic not being blocked.

However, don’t panic. Most of the web is open. You will easily access your favourite Google, Facebook, Twitter and almost all websites that are not concerned in other parts of the world. I don’t suffer much, neither will you.

Skype in Dubai and UAE

You may have read a lot about Skype being blocked here. That’s not true. You can use skype to make skype-to-skype calls and chatting. Landline calls are not working though. Check out paid VPN access on Google to find out how to use skype.

Mobile phone

There are 2 providers as well: du and Etisalat. Just go in a mall and buy a sim-card.

Quality of both providers is fairly good, I’ve got no complains. I don’t know how much a minute costs, and I also failed to find the price on the providers’ websites. I don’t pay much for mobile though.

Mobile internet is extremely expensive. 20 AED went off just with loading one website on my wife’s iPhone. I failed to find the price as well, but switched internet on our mobiles off immediately.

Mobile bills cannot be paid online; you will need to buy recharge pin-codes in super markets. Recharging instructions are on the reverse side of the slip.

My employer provides me with an Etisalat mobile that I don’t pay for, so I don’t know how much it costs. My wife is using Etisalat as well. I pay max 25 AED (4.6 EUR, 6.9 USD) a month for it.

My story of settling in Dubai

It was much easier for me rather than it will be for many of you. The relocation company that my employer hired to facilitate the move did everything for me. So, I didn’t have to care about going to suppliers and applying for the services. I know that she visited all three providers in a couple of hours, so it must not be difficult.

There were some problems though.

Internet

Once the relocation agent paid du the fee for my connection, I had to wait for a few days to be contacted by du customer care. They called me and scheduled a date for a technician to come and set it up.

On the appointment date nobody came at the agreed time. When I called the customer care, they simply told me that there was no booking in the system. I was very angry, because it was a working day and I had to take a day-off, but nevertheless, we rescheduled the visit to another day the same week.

Nobody came again. That was over the top. I spent about an hour on the line with customer care listening that something was wrong with the system and the technician did not receive the booking and he was too busy to come because his working day would be over at 6 PM. I tried to get hold of the duty manager but that all was useless. The highest person I managed to speak to was a supervisor. He always promised to call me back but he never did, so I had to call back myself to get feedback.

Next couple of days I was promised to be called back in an hour every time I called them. As they didn’t call back, I was calling them every hour myself insisting on coming during non-working hours as it was their fault twice. Finally, I got hold of a manager, but the only thing she could do was to get a technician come the next Saturday.

I gave up. They don’t do any exceptions here. If you don’t want to use them, you won’t be using the internet at all. Big business definitely needs some competition here to become world class.

A technician came the next Saturday and set it up. It took him 15 minutes to connect the wires. Don’t really understand why they don’t keep the cables connected and don’t switch the service on/off in the control tower.

Mobile

I bought an Etisalat SIM-card for my wife in an Almaya supermarket. They promised to have it activated overnight. But they never did that.

I had to log a service call to Etisalat customer care to activate the card. I must admit that their customer care works extremely well. I received an e-mail response informing me that they had not received the documents from the shop. It took them two or three days to sort that out, and they kept me updated all the time.

My advice would be to buy a sim card in one of the providers’ own shops to avoid issues like mine. I would assume they should activate the service immediately there.

Air conditioning

When I received the first bill, there was also a disconnection notice with due date the next day inside. So, I had to urgently draw to the Empower’s head office to pay the bill. There I set up auto-debiting from my credit card not to come there again.

It also appeared that there was an outstanding amount not having been paid by the previous tenant. I had to pay it myself, but the landlord paid it back to me afterwards.

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.

I have put Dubai Expatriate areas I know of on the map. I may have missed something, but these areas are the ones where almost most of my colleagues (western expats) live in.

Apartments in Dubai on the map

Apartments Dubai on a larger map

I didn’t have photos of all areas to put in here. Will do that once drive around and take pictures. For the ones that do not have pictures just click on a pin to see the name.

Dubai apartments and villas next to the sea

• Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) – located next to the sea shore and the beach, it is a wonderful place for living. There are lots of restaurants (none of which serves alcohol by the way), a supermarket, quiet green areas and the beach. There is no construction nearby as JBR was a single-phase project, the only exception is former Oasis hotel being demolished just in the middle of The Walk opposite Sadaf section of JBR. There are a few residential pools in the area which you can visit free of charge. There is no gym although it was supposed to be built. It is a perfect location if you work in Jebel Ali, Internet City or Media City free zones.

Jumeirah Beach Residence - Bahar Towers

• Dubai Marina – a city of skyscrapers located between the Marina and JBR. Very nice area to live, there is a metro nearby (yet not open), Jumeirah Beach Residence’s The Walk is very close – you won’t get bored there. It is cheaper than JBR, because it’s not on the front line of the sea. However, the major inconvenience is the construction around.

Dubai Marina

• Palm Jumeirah – probably the fanciest place in Dubai . It is an artificial island everybody has head of with lots of villas and apartments. Prices are comparable to JBR. It is not that overcrowded as other Dubai areas, but on the other hand I think it can be difficult to catch a taxi if there isn’t a hotel nearby. I have also heard that there were issues regarding drainage and smell coming from the sea because of that. Not sure if that is true and never felt any smell when was going there but if you want to live there, smell it first.

The Palm Jumeirah

• Jumeirah – a big district with lots of villas. Most houses are 2 floors. A bit expensive though. There are lots of locals living there, restaurants, shops, whatever you need. The sea is also very close.

Jumeirah

Dubai apartments, no sea nearby

• The Old Town – even though without the sea next to the area, it is the most popular area among my colleagues. There are mostly 4-5 floors buildings combined in residential condominiums having their own pools, gardens, etc. Many ground floor apartments have got a garden attached, that’s very nice, especially if you’ve got kids or a dog. Dubai Mall is in the same area and there are a huge variety of bars! However, considering that the Old Town apartments are rather small, I think they are rather overpriced due to the location.

The Old Town

• Trade Centre and DIFC – that is a business district. Lots of towers, noisy Sheikh Zayed Road, construction around. I stayed in a serviced apartment for a month in that area. There are a lot of restaurants, cafes, and hotels with bars. But the area is a bit uncomfortable. I would live there only if you work nearby and want to be as close to work as possible.

DIFC & Trade Centre

• The Greens – good value for money. Located on the non-sea side of Sheikh Zayed Road across Dubai Internet & Media cities and Dubai Marina. Mostly comprises 4-5 floors buildings, area is quite green. The only disadvantage is terrible traffic in the morning. There is only one exit to the main road and it is always congested when everyone is going to work. A colleague of mine lives there and he has to get up at 6 to leave the area by 6.30 the latest.

The Greens

• Emirates Hills – honestly, don’t know anything about it. As well as the Greens, it is on the opposite side of Sheikh Zayed Road from Dubai Marina, so you can easily go to the sea. Check out more here

• Dubai Festival City – located close to Deira and Dubai International Airport, Dubai Creek is also nearby. Check out more at the official website

• International City combines a few districts called Spain, Russia, etc. It is still being constructed, so it is a bit dirty in some areas. There are no free of charge pools and gyms, it is quite far from the fanciest places. But it is quite cheap. If you are single and want to save money that would probably be an area to consider.

International City

Dubai Villas

• Green Community Village – this is definitely the destination if you like green trees, grass and quiet surroundings. Located quite far from the business districts, in the middle of the desert, it is amazingly comfortable residential place. It is expensive though but you know what you are paying for. It is really worth it. I’ve got a colleague living there and every time I am going to see him I feel relaxed in the harmony that the area provides.

• Arabian Ranches – located on Emirates road, has got a golf club. Check out the official website

• Mirdif – another expat villas area located on Emirates road. Check out more here

My life in Jumeirah Beach Residence

You might have found that I am very excited about the sea. So, I am. I live in Jumeirah Beach Residence with my wife. This is a very lovely place for a family.

Jumeirah Beach Residence

My wife does not work, so I ought to give her a good home while she’s bored being alone. She can go swimming every day (except for the boiling summer months of course). The beach is in a 5 minutes walk, it is a bit overcrowded on Fridays but almost empty on week days. People from all over the city come here; there are also lots of cars with Abu Dhabi license plates. Car entrance to the beach was closed a couple of weeks ago. Before that, there were a lot of 4×4′s coming just next to the people lying on sand, turning music on too loud and so on. I hated that, but now that is impossible due to big concrete blocks on the way to the sand.

The sea there is nothing special but it is great anyway. Although it lacks beauty of Mediterranean or the Red Sea, it is so close! You can never underestimate the importance of something unavailable at home, being just next door here. Before moving to Dubai I have been to the sea only twice in my life. Now I can go swimming whenever I would like to

Beach at JBR

The area comprises of a few condominiums, 6-7 towers each. Every condominium has got its own name like Sadaf, Bahar, Rimal, Amwaj and others. Every building has got a basement parking of 2-3 floors, so the Plaza level is actually located about 10 meters above the ground where all the cars and visitors are. That makes the area very quiet.

JBR Plaza Level

In every residential condominium there are at least two pools. There are also pools in the buildings themselves in some towers. Pools are nice and quite chilling even in summer. We used to swim there when it was really hot. Given that it gets dark very early here you will find out that you come home at night even though it is just around 6.30 PM. It will not be a good idea to swim in the sea, so the pools are a solution.

Jumeirah Beach Residence - Pools

There is no gym in JBR. It is annoying, especially because we were told that it had almost been finished. It annoys everyone but there is nothing we can do about it.

There is a shopping street called The Walk. It is located right next to the buildings, there are lots of good restaurants, fast foods, shops, fountains, etc. So, you won’t be bored there. There are always lots of people and cars around. You will see many beautiful & custom cars like Bentleys, Corvettes, Ferraris, Lambos, Porsches and many others having custom painting, huge wheels, airkits, etc. Guess what. They are moving slowly, turning loud music on. They are watching at people gazing at them They are so proud of owning a car like that, so it looks like a custom cars show every night on a weekend. People often take pictures of the cars and the cars’ owners are proud of that and do not hesitate to go around once again

The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence

The Walk Parking - Atlantis the Palm Jumeirah on the background

Custom Ford Mustang with lambo doors

Another thing I really enjoy is that there are restaurants, coffee shops and cafes located on the Plaza level, way too far from The Walk, so that visitors and tourists just do not know about them. You can have a quiet breakfast with your family without being disturbed by visitors hanging around.

In Bahar section there is a supermarket called Almaya. It is a bit expensive for its quality and does not offer big variety of stuff but it is very close and that makes it very handy sometimes when you want to make a mojito and realize that you don’t have a lime . Waitrose and Spinney’s supermarkets are located in Dubai Marina, just 5 minutes to drive. Normally I go there to buy fresh stuff. There are also spa’s and hairdressers for both men and women.

Actually, Jumeirah Beach Residence is a kind of city in the city. You don’t really need to go out if you don’t want to. You’ve got everything you need right in house.

I work in Dubai Airport Free Zone area, which is just the opposite side of the city and is 45 km from my home, and it takes me 45 minutes to get to and from work by car if I avoid Salik (toll road gates). It takes about 35 minutes if I pay a Salik charge. The thing is that I go against daily traffic from Sharjah towards Jebel Ali and all the 45 minutes I just drive. And it also works the other way around – traffic to Sharjah is somewhat terrible but I am on the other side of the road.

So, basically I am really enjoying living there and JBR is the area I would recommend everyone who needs an apartment in a lovely place next to the sea.