Renting Dubai Properties For Expatriates

If you are moving to Dubai for work you may be planning on renting a house or flat to live in during your stay there. One thing to keep in mind is that you will not be able to rent any properties unless you are the holder of a residential visa. If your company is moving you, they will have to sign the lease or rental promise instead. In the event that your employer signs the rental agreement, they will be the one who will pay the bill and then work out a plan with you. If you hold the residential visa, you can choose the house or flat you want to rent and you will be required to sign any subsequent paper work and will be responsible for the payment of all rents. In this case the employer will often keep your passport for the entire rent period, though this is different from company to company.


Another complicated thing, while renting an apartment in Dubai, is that almost all the owners require the whole payment in advance for one year.

Because most people do not have this amount of money the renting process usually happens the following way. You will provide 4 cheques to the property owner that will be cashed by him every quarter. If he tries to cash the cheque and there is not enough money on your banking account you will have problems with both the bank and the property owner.

The best way to find property to lease is to go to a realtor who specialises in renting properties in Dubai. You will need to pay these specialists a percentage of the yearly lease, typically five percent, for them to place you in a flat. This can be well worth the cost as they will have photographs and demographic locations for you to choose from. If you know the area of Dubai you will be working at, a realtor can show you apartments in the same area as they are well versed in the city and the layout of the city.

You will not need to do much leg work yourself if you allow a realtor to do this for you.

If you prefer to do most of the leg work when finding a flat or home to rent in Dubai, you can use the internet as a tool to aid you in finding apartments for rent in Dubai. If you search in your web browser for rental properties in Dubai, you will find results for forum boards and realtors that deal in Dubai rentals. Your best option in this instance is to go with the forums that specialise in out of country rentals. These are typically people who own properties that they are looking to lease and have posted them on the forum boards. You can post replies with any questions you may have regarding the property and then decide if the property is suited to you or not. This is a great tool and will typically save you realtor fees as the homes are owned by those who post them.


When renting an apartment you should also consider obvious things like location. The things to consider is distance from parks, the city and shopping centres, the beach and your job. I cannot provide exact advice in this matter because it depends on what is more important for you.


For example if you work in Media or Internet City it is not a good idea to have an apartment in Bur Dubai or Deirah because you will spend more than 4 hours per day only driving to your job and back. These precious hours can be very well spent on fine Dubai beaches with your family. Instead it is a better idea to rent an apartment in "the Gardens" or "the Greens" regions, which are both very close to Dubai Internet and Media city. At least you can look for apartments on the Jumeirah road it will be closer to both your work and beaches.





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