Hi, Sunil here to talk about the rents in Dubai

This is a very important topic and rightfully so we have spend a good amount of time researching the information in this section for you so that you can plan your finances and budget your living expenses if you are planning to move to Dubai or have just moved there.

There is no doubt that rents in Dubai are expensive.

Your rent will be the biggest component of your cost of living in Dubai.

That is why it is important to understand what you are getting into as well as get an idea of how much you would be paying.

Dubai rents started sky rocketing in the early 2000s when property development was starting to ramp up.

Dubai’s economy was booming at the time as expats from all around the world were migrating in hundreds by the day to capitalize on the market expansion.

The increases in rents in Dubai was not linear or gradual, it happened overnight and was exponential in nature.

Due to no regulation around rental rates, landlords kept increasing the rents to as much as tenants could afford. Back then, companies were booming and so were salaries, therefore tenants were making good money to be able to afford the sky high rents.

This was not only the case in Dubai, but also throughout UAE (especially Abu Dhabi as it is the next in line for economic expansion). However, as housing stabilized and the market slowed down, rents started to come down a bit. Add to that the economic crisis of 2008 and rents fell very fast. Many investors in real estate in Dubai were not recouping their monthly mortgage payments in rents and lost their investments.

All that said, rents are still relatively high in Dubai when compared elsewhere. Any time you have little housing supply in a limited space (think about Manhattan / New York City), you will always see higher prices across the board.

Again, it is Kish and my intention to give you a rough idea of what rents are like in Dubai. Do not take our research data as words on stone. Things change all the time. Rather, use it as a frame of reference. The research data is from various advertisements, forum discussions, Dubai newspapers, targeted email groups as well as conversations with professionals in the rental market in Dubai.

None of the data is from subjective websites or blogs where the author has voiced their opinions. We have compiled a quick summary spreadsheet to illustrate the average rents in certain areas of Dubai. This spreadsheet is not all inclusive, we could not gather rental data on some areas so we have not included those. This also does not include extra ordinary or luxurious type Dubai villas that have 10 bedrooms and a swimming pool.

The rent figures in this spreadsheet are a weighted average number of rent figures from the various sources we researched. For example, if we saw a 2 bedroom apartment in Jumeirah for $1,500 a month in a newspaper, and later saw a similar ad on a forum for $2,000 and yet another ad in an internet advertisement listing for $2,500, we took the average of the three to arrive at a rent of $2,333 per month. You will mostly see rental prices in annual figures (and in AED – Dirhams) as most landlords in Dubai require payment of for the year rent up front.

Just a warning, these rent figures will appear high, because they are high! What can you do to help your cause? You can certainly negotiate a housing allowance and/or payment of utility bills with your employer. If your employer does not agree to this then try to negotiate other expenses so that you can have more disposable income to contribute towards your rent in Dubai. Read more about the salary structure in Dubai here to learn about what and how to negotiate.

Click here to access the spreadsheet data

Please let us know of any changes or additions. Our goal is to provide as close of an estimate as possible to anyone looking to rent housing in Dubai in order to help them budget and plan as accurately as possible. You can certainly help us accomplish that goal!