What’s up, guys, and welcome to another article on my Dubai stay. I hope everybody is well today. I’m going to be discussing with you what my time has been like living in Dubai over the past three years. There’s a few times I’ve wanted to write this article, but I thought the longer I give it, the more of a realistic review I can give on my overall experience living in this very unique and exciting city. Now, for those who are not aware I moved here to Dubai at the end of 2019, and I moved from London.

And the reason I picked Dubai, I guess will become very clear once you’ve read this article all the way to the end. All I knew for sure was I just didn’t want to repeat another year of living in London.

Since my revenue streams are all online, there was no necessity for me to be in London. I could literally be anywhere in the world as long as I had an internet connection. So when I moved here to Dubai at the end of 2019, I actually had no intention of staying here long term or making it my home, or even being here three years later. The original plan was to come here just for a couple of months and to test it out and get a feel for whether or not it was somewhere where I could live on.

I think it’s very important for anyone who is planning to relocate to Dubai, to at least just go there first and maybe for a couple of weeks or a month, get a feel for the place itself to see if it is somewhere where you can actually live long term.

Because there’s nothing worse than moving somewhere where you’ve never been before, committing long term to whether it be accommodation or job, whatever else it might be, and then realizing you absolutely hate the place. Because I must say, Dubai, even though in my opinion I think it’s a great place, certainly is not for everyone.

Accommodation

So the first thing we’re going to talk about is accommodation. When I originally moved here, as I mentioned, I had no intention to stay here long-term, so I certainly didn’t want to commit to anything long-term accommodation-wise.

So I’d actually found a place beforehand and I knew exactly where I wanted to stay. I was looking at monthly rentals and I found a spot in JBR. JBR was a place by the beach, a nice place to walk around, and a lot of tourists. That kind of felt like it was a good spot for me to start off.

My experience with the first rental was largely okay, but from what I have heard from some of my friends and stuff, you do have to be careful with who you are renting off, especially if it’s private property. There are some very dodgy landlords here, so I would do your research and just make sure that the person you are going to be renting off is legit and they’re not going to ask for an insane amount of money upfront.

A lot of people ask me about the property prices here in Dubai and the rental prices, how much it costs to live here. And it really just depends upon how lavish you want to live and the location. Location is probably the biggest thing that’s going to determine how much money you are going to be spending.

There are areas around Dubai that are the more popular places to live. The Palm is probably one of the most expensive places to get a property here. You’ve got downtown, which is very popular. You’ve got JBI, you got the Marina, and there are a few other spots as well. So it depends on what you want.

If you want to be as close to the beach as possible, like me, then you are going to pay a premium price for that. But if you don’t really care, then you can live further inland and you can definitely get a much cheaper rate on the property on which you choose to live in. But overall, I would say the prices have gone up quite a bit, certainly over the past three years. And I guess that’s just down to the fact that Dubai is becoming an increasingly popular place for tourists and just for ex-pats to choose to live here.

Cost Of Living

And when it comes to the overall cost of living here in Dubai, again, I’m comparing it to how much I was spending in London.

And it really depends so much on your lifestyle. I would say for sure, Dubai is one of the places where it’s so easy to spend money on just the smallest things. I think in London, what I tended to do was I didn’t really go out and about a huge amount. My life was definitely more simple when I was in London. When I’m in Dubai, there’s just a hell of a lot more to do.

There are places to go, there are a lot of things to do outside on a day-to-day basis. So you have to be careful with your spending here to not get carried away and just spend all of your money, particularly if you’re on a budget.

Tax Benefits

But what I would say for sure is, I guess if I was to compare Dubai living to London living, the fact that I don’t pay any tax here, I would say, makes Dubai relatively cheaper compared to London. And it’s one of the reasons why I ended up staying here. Because I remember at, at some point in February 2020, I got this huge tax bill from the HMRC.

And I just remember thinking, I do not want to keep paying this amount of money to the tax man. Particularly because I wasn’t even spending a huge amount of time in the UK anyway. I was constantly traveling. So I spoke to my accountants, and I was like, what can I do to just not pay this tax anymore? And they said, well, you could technically move everything over to Dubai and give up UK residency.

But if you want to do that, you kind of have to commit to this long term, and you have to say that Dubai is going to be realistically in place, which you are going to Live over the next few years. So I thought to myself, okay, I’ve been here for a few months, I like to buy, so let’s do this whole tax thing and get the benefits from it. So I did that. My accountants helped massively with this. They just obviously did all the hard work and made sure everything was done legally.

And I basically don’t pay any income tax. I do pay VAT, which I believe currently these 5%, and so far I’ve been exempt from corporation tax, although they are starting to introduce corporation tax next year in 2023, which obviously is not ideal, but it’s not going to be that bad.

I still don’t have to pay income tax, so that is great. But one thing to keep in mind, particularly if you are living or have come from the UK, is if you want to live in Dubai and not pay tax, you have to give up your UK residency. So now I’m still a UK citizen, but I’m not a resident of the UK. So you want to go back to the UK. I can’t be in the UK for more than 90 days a year.

Getting Around

The next point moving around Dubai. I think it’s important to note that there is not one main city center where everything is either in the city center or around it. Dubai is very much spread out along the coastline and is pretty damn big overall. So, although there is public transport in Dubai, I wouldn’t say it’s ideal, particularly when you compare it to the Underground in London.

The Underground in London would literally connect you to every single point pretty much in the city center. Whereas Dubai, has one monorail train system, which is very linear, if you live next to the train stations and the only places you want to go to are within that line, it’s going to be convenient for you, but otherwise, you’re going to have to get about by car.

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So having a car here, I would say is definitely essential. You could get around by taxi. I mean, there is a hell of a lot of taxis here. They got Ubers here. But it is going to add up if you’re the type of person that is going to a lot of different places on a day-to-day basis.

So getting a car is convenient. And what I would say is so ideal about Dubai is the parking situation is great. There are literally car parks everywhere that you go and there are also loads of valet parking.

Climate And Seasons

The next point is the climate and the seasonality. Now the seasonality is largely determined by the climate here in Dubai.

During the summer months, it is hot and I mean seriously hot. I’ve not experienced anything quite like it before and you really have to experience it to know what I’m talking about. I would say from the months of May to September, it’s hot, and being outside it’s pretty uncomfortable and unbearable. Unless you’re by the pool or on the beach, it’s just not going to be very nice. I would say the beginning of October, like mid-October, it starts to get really pleasant again.

And because it becomes more pleasant, obviously loads of people start coming back. So from October till April, I would definitely class that as the busy season. And that’s when there’s noticeably a lot more people here in Dubai. If you were to live here in the summer, it’s not that bad. I mean, it could be a hell of a lot worse.

Everywhere you go is fully air-conditioned and there are loads to do indoors. But if you’re the type of person that likes to be outside quite a lot of the time, you’re not really going to be able to do that comfortably in the summertime. So because of this seasonality, I actually leave here for the summer. I spend very little time here in the summer and I just pick up. And in the past, I’ve either just picked one place to live or I’ve done a little bit of traveling.

But what I have noticed is that when I do spend quite a lot of time out of Dubai over the summer periods, I really do miss it. And every time I come back, I’m so happy to be back and it gives me a great deal of appreciation for the city overall.

Once I’ve had a little bit of a break from it, I’ve noticed that if I do spend too long a period of time in Dubai without having a little vacation or a break, it can kind of I don’t know, you just feel like you need to get out. But I feel with me, that’s just going to be the case anywhere I go, regardless of how beautiful or amazing the place might be after a certain period of time, I’m just going to get a little bit bored of it and I need to just change over my scenery.

Religion

When it comes to religion, you need to understand, obviously, Dubai is a Muslim country, so you have to respect their beliefs.

But I wouldn’t necessarily feel as though I actually notice that I’m in a Muslim country, particularly in Dubai. And I think that’s large because Dubai just consists of so many people that are ex-pats. I think 80% or even more than that are actually ex-pats. So a lot of people here are actually not Muslim. And although I think Dubai was a place that used to be really conservative and there were quite a lot of strict rules in place, it’s definitely a lot more relaxed now.

And even I’ve said over the past three years, it has overall become a lot more relaxed, particularly even during the period of Ramadan in 2020. I think my first experience of being here during Ramadan, was quite strict. They put covers over all the restaurants and cafes. It was very disrespectful to drink or eat in public and so on.

But now, because there are just so many tourists here and they would still want to make this place appealing for the tourists, a lot of those rules and restrictions have kind of been eased. However, over the past few years, Ramadan has become more relaxed and people are able to enjoy it more.

So I think Dubai is probably going to go down that path of just being a lot more Western and more relaxed when it comes to those laws and so on. But what I do know is when I go to other places outside of Dubai, if I go to Sharjah or Abu Dhabi, it is a lot more conservative. And you definitely notice that you are in a Muslim country when you go to those places.

Quality Of Life

The quality of life overall is very high in Dubai. And one thing which is very noticeable is this place, without a doubt, is one of the safest places I’ve ever been to. I’ve never seen any violence. There’s very little theft, there’s no stabbings, no murders, and you can go around wearing some very expensive jewelry, and nobody even bats an eyelid. You can leave your car unlocked, you can leave your apartment unlocked.

I don’t advise that you do that, but I was surprised how many people just leave their doors unlocked when they leave. It’s just not a normal thing for people to rob and steal here, which is great, and particularly for women, people walking around late at night, there’s just no danger of anything bad happening.

It’s a very safe place and it’s a very stark contrast. When I was living in London, a lot of times in London, there were certain areas I went to or certain times of the day when I just wouldn’t really like to be outside because of the concern of being robbed or mugged. I saw a lot of violence in London and I think the situation has got even worse now.

You can’t even walk around wearing nice things. You’re just going to get stabbed or robbed, like a nice watch, which is a shame, really, and I don’t know why that’s the case, but maybe it’s down to the fact that the police are just not really respected, particularly in the UK. Here the police are respected and they’re almost feared, in a sense. Like, you just don’t mess with the police here and you don’t break the law. If you do, you pay the price.

Nobody wants to go to prison here in the UAE. What the guys at the top say goes, and if they don’t like you, then the situation is not going to be good for you. So I like that it’s safe, it’s clean, the streets are extremely clean. I don’t see any litter anywhere. I, in fact, actually see people, cleaning the streets every day and like everything, like all the most ridiculous pieces of outdoor furniture getting cleaned.

Lack Of Nature

One thing which is a bit of a downside to Dubai is the lack of nature. And unfortunately, I think that’s just how it’s going to be. You are living in a city in the desert. What do you expect? You’re not going to be surrounded by the jungle or the rainforest.

I think they are making an action plan to plant more trees and improve the overall greenery of the city. But obviously, it’s difficult for them to do that because it never rains here. If you want plants, if you want trees, you need water, so they’re just going to need to source more water from God knows where and probably just convert it from the sea. But to be honest, as long as I have access to the beach, sunshine, and sea, that’s good enough for me.

Common Myths Debunked

There are a few common myths that are still here going around, which I feel need to be deep bunked and they’re just simply not true.

The first one is alcohol. People think when you come here you can’t drink. It’s a strict Muslim country. Well, that’s not the case. You can pretty much acquire alcohol at any hotel, beach club or bar, or restaurant, and it’s really not that much of a difficulty to get your hands on it if you want to get your hands on it.

And now you can actually get a license where you can buy alcohol from a shop. Another myth is the dress code. A lot of women seem to think that they are not allowed to show any skin when they come to the buy, which is simply not the case. If you’re at the beach or you are at a beach club, you can obviously just wear a bikini. You’re obviously not allowed to be completely naked.

There are no nudist beaches here, put it that way. But I think at the end of the day, you just have to be respectful. And particularly if you’re going to places with a high population of locals or you go into the mall, you generally can’t show too much skin. You have to cover up a little bit more. You can’t be walking around with your b**bs out or your ass out like that’s, just blatantly, quite disrespectful.

So you have to cover up to some extent, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what a lot of people seem to think. There is a myth that you cannot show any affection in public whatsoever. I think this has largely been relaxed over the past few years. You can walk around and you can hold hands if you want to, no one’s going to complain or kick-off. But if you are kissing in public, like overdoing it, a little peck is probably acceptable.

But if you’re aggressively making out with your partner in the middle of the street, that’s probably not going to go down too well. You’re not going to get arrested, but you are just going to get told off by security and they’ll tell you not to do that. That’s pretty much it. So you can’t again, you have to kind of respect the fact that public affection or excessive public affection is generally really going to upset the locals. So don’t do that.

The Culture

The last myth is that a lot of people complain, or like to complain about the fact that, oh, Dubai has no culture. Why would I go to Dubai? There’s no culture here. But what I would say is Dubai has actually kind of created its own culture in a sense that when I look around, I look at the people here, it seems to be full of loads of enthusiastic, driven, ambitious go-getters who want to make something of their life. There are a lot of people who have moved here to progress with themselves, their careers, self-development, whatever it might be.

Everyone is really sort of enthusiastic and keen to network and meet with other people. So I’ve found that it has kind of created its own culture of these types of individuals, particularly when I compare it to a lot of the places around the world where I’ve been to.

It’s a motivating place to be because everybody around you is working and they want to succeed and they’re actually happy for your success. Whereas a lot of other places, particularly where I used to live, I’ve lived in Leeds, lived in Newcastle. If you succeed and you do well, a lot of people tend to be jealous and they hate it, whereas here you don’t really see that.

Don’t Do This

Although I would say Dubai is a fairly relaxed place, certainly compared to how it used to be. There are certainly a couple of things that you just don’t do here. First, one is fighting or partaking in any violence, particularly in a public setting. That’s just really not going to go down well. You’re going to get arrested and you’ll end up in trouble.

You’ve got to understand that Dubai is giving off this image of trying to portray itself as being a very safe and comfortable place to live. So if you’re going around causing violence, that’s not going to make Dubai look good at all, so you’re going to be punished for that. So no fighting. Secondly, drugs are also a big no-no. So don’t come here with drugs, don’t consume drugs, and certainly don’t have the intention of trying to sell any drugs.

You are going to be in big trouble. And more than likely, it’s going to be the case that no one is going to be able to save you from the overall dating scene here in Dubai.

The Dating Scene

But let’s just say that there is no shortage of beautiful women here. And what I like about it is it’s a place of so many different nationalities. Whereas, say, for example, if I’d been in Spain or I’d been in the UK, predominantly, it’s going to be English women or it’s going to be like Spanish women.

When you come to Dubai, there are just women from all over the world that live here, which is great. A lot of variety.

What I Don’t Like

Overall, the things which I don’t like, the list is actually very small. If there was a big, long list of things I didn’t like here, then I probably wouldn’t be living here in the first place.

The first thing is, obviously I’ve mentioned before, the summer heat is annoying. I would definitely spend a lot more time in Dubai over the summer if it wasn’t so outrageously hot. But what can you do? That’s just the way it is, living in the middle of the friggin desert. And that’s just the price to pay.

One thing which is the most annoying and frustrating thing ever, which I hope they change very soon, is you can’t accept video calls or WhatsApp calls. It’s just blocked here for some reason. In fact, I think I know what the reason is. But anyway, in order to make a call on WhatsApp or a video call, you have to hop onto a VPN, which it’s not the end of the world, but it’s just annoying. Every time I get an incoming call, I have to be like, 1 second, let me just get on the VPN and I’ll call you back.

It’s just like, just please just let everybody make video calls and voice calls. It’s just a lot more simple if you do it that way. But Dubai has its reasons, the UAE has its reasons for not allowing that to be the case. But maybe hopefully they’ll change at some point in the future. And I guess one thing which I find to be I guess it’s not a bad thing, but because this city is built to entertain and attract people, it can be very distracting to live here and to try and focus and get your work done.

Every single day I have offers from friends, from tourists to go to a beach club, to go to this event, to go and do this activity literally every single day, every single night there’s something going on.

And I’ve had to be really disciplined to just say no to people, especially if I have work that needs to be done. And particularly with the apartment which I have now, I’m constantly looking out the window. This view of so much activity going on, on the water, at the beaches, everybody’s having fun and I just want to go out and I want to join everyone.

And I think I noticed, particularly the first year when I was living here, because you’re in this new city and there’s so much to do which you haven’t already done, you spend a lot of time going out and about and experiencing the city itself.

But now, because I’ve been here for three years almost, the novelty of living in Dubai is kind of worn off, which I’m glad, about because now I can just focus and say no to those things, which I know I’m not missing out on it because I’ve already been there and I’ve done it. So now I can just focus on the things which need to be done. But it’s nice to be living somewhere where I have so many options for really cool things to do.

Networking

And I think, again, something I really like about Dubai is there are so many people that are coming in and out all the time, particularly during the peak season. And I like to live in a place that is cool, which is happening, which is a very vibrant place to be.

Not only does it give me a great opportunity to network with so many people around the world because they’re coming through the buy at some point during the year, but also it gives me a good opportunity to just keep in touch with a lot of people who I know or spend time with in the past.

I always feel like I’m connected with everyone because I see them at least some point in the year and I feel as though for anybody who wants to move here to network and grow their business, this is probably one of the best places where you can do it, particularly from the months of October and April. So the pros by far outweigh the cons. But ultimately that’s just kind of my experience.

Conclusion

I know a lot of the people who come here or they have given it a chance and tried to live here, they have a very different experience and maybe that’s just down to what they want from their life, or maybe they’ve just been restricted with the things that they can and can’t do. I think my experience would be very different if I had come here on a budget and I’d have to limit myself with the things which I can and can’t do.

To be here and see sort so many cool things to do and so many people with money and you just not really being able to partake in that can be very frustrating. And I know a lot of people have come here and tried to keep up with that lifestyle of living in Dubai and they just spent all their money and they have to go home and it can be a trap. So you have to be quite sensible and have a plan when you come here.

But I think just being here in itself should motivate you to make something of yourself and step up your game and really put a push forward with your career. So maybe when you move here, you do have to be on a budget and you have to stay focused and you have to say no to a lot of things because you either can’t afford it or you just don’t have the time to do it.

That’s fine, because ultimately, after a year or two of hard graft, you’re going to be in a position where you have a lot more money, more freedom, and you’ll have the chance to actually enjoy the city for what it is. So that is my experience so far. I certainly will be living here for the next couple of years. I don’t know what life is going to be like in five years’ time. Maybe I will choose to relocate and live somewhere else.

But I do honestly feel as though Dubai is going to be a base for me long into the future. So maybe it will be for you, maybe it won’t be. But don’t knock it until you have been here and experienced it for yourself.