How to find a house in Abu Dhabi - Part Three

Actually, this is more of an update on the progress being made at our villa, which is, in a word, not much.

Despite the fact that Abu Dhabi is a hotbed of construction and probably has the world's largest concentration of cranes, they seem to do things backwards there (soon to be "here").  The latest report on the metamorphosis of our villa from its present state of filth to something habitable by mid-August is this:  they're painting it.

You might think that this is fantastic news.  That's because you live in a place where painting is done last.  Not in Abu Dhabi!  T/here the tradition is to pick one's way around the rubbish left by the previous lot of piggies family and paint the spaces in between.  Once the paint job is complete, they will presumably move on to those niggly little details like repairing the plumbing and air conditioning.  And maybe (just maybe) after that, they'll send in a crew to get rid of the crap that was left there by a pack of people who appear to have had less evacuation notice than the residents of Pompei.  But there's a bright side:

At least they stripped off the wallpaper before they started painting.

How to find a house in Abu Dhabi - Part Two

It's now just about four weeks since my research assistant (new term for husband) located a villa for us.  You remember, the one with the kitchen that looks like the film set of the food fight in Animal House.

And it looks as if we're going to get it.

Finally.

Let's take a look at the process of acquiring this magnificent piece of real estate:

28 June

First of all, this wasn't something listed in any property database or newspaper real estate section.  Why not?  Because it was a complete disaster area.  I mean, the guys in Stalag 17 had it better in terms of living quarters.  At least they were military folk and therefore pretty neat and tidy (I believe there is only ONE military man in the world who isn't neat and tidy, and I'm married to him).  This place was so bad that even the real estate agent (who is working for us, not for the owner) didn't want to show it to us.  Eventually she did.  And it was pretty bad. Mind you, I didn't actually SEE it, or any of the pictures, until after we made the offer.

1 July

We made an offer to the property management firm, contingent on all cleaning and repairs being completed within 30 days.  At that time, if work was completed to our satisfaction, we would enter into an annual rental agreement.  They agreed.

2 July

We sent a work list to the property manager, detailing all items to be cleaned and/or repaired. 

6 July

Property manager accepted the work list.

Then we waited a week.

12 July

We asked for a progress report and were told nothing had been done.  Why not?  Because the property management firm wasn't going to start ANY work until the annual rent had been paid and contract signed and utilities hooked up.

Utilities hooked up?  I know, I know.  Apparently the way things work out in the Land of Lawrence is that the tenant has the utilities connected, the property manager does the work, and then reimburses the tenant.  Ok, whatever.

The little hiccough here was a slight (9 day) delay getting the check and contract taken care of. So we waited.  And we waited.  And we waited again.

21 July

It is entirely possible that we now have a place to live in Abu Dhabi.  (Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write.)  In between doing all that clever consulting work, my RA will be popping around to check on progress.  So far they seem to have removed an entire dumpster's worth of rubbish from the garden, so things are looking good.

Remember, this is Arabia, so the fact that someone has removed rubbish from your house is cause for celebration.

I have to confess I haven't actually learned any patience over the past month.  But at least I've discovered that mañana is actually an Arabic word.

How to find a house in Abu Dhabi

Well, at least how to generate utter panic and frustration.

Believe it or not, we started looking back in March, long before either one of us had full-time job offers, to get a sense of the neighbourhoods, availability, prices, and general layout of properties.  This was amazingly difficult, particularly when the real estate agents found out we weren't ready to sign a contract and present a check (for all the money in the world) immediately.  As I mentioned in a previous post, it was difficult even getting them to ring back when they discovered it was nothing more than a recce trip.  Only one agent (not surprisingly the one we ended up using when we became ready!) drove me around Abu Dhabi to see some exemplars.

There are effectively three categories of rental accommodation in Abu Dhabi (well, four, if you count labour camps):

A.  Villa built to western expat spec

B.  Villa built to UAE national spec

C.  Apartment in a high rise

You might think that A and B are the same.  They are not.  The "expat" type of villas in compounds like Khalidiya Village, Al Raha Gardens, Mushrif Gardens, and Golf Gardens can be enormous (four or five bedrooms, all with en suites, and potentially around 2,500-3,000 sq. ft. or more in living area).

The "UAE national" type of villas are larger.  I saw one in Mushrif that had not one, but two living rooms (one for the ladies with a separate entrance, and one larger room that was reminiscent of the ballroom in The Sound of Music.  The kitchen was the size of a slightly smaller ballroom, four immense bedrooms were on the next floor, and the top floor had two maid's rooms, each with a bath.  I came away from it thinking that all of our personal belongings would fit nicely in the main living room.

While this all sounds fantastic, the fact is that many expats don't actually want such a place.  They can't wrap their heads around those dimensions, which are likely built for entertaining extensive groups of family and friends.  And they may not be shipping most of their worldly goods across the seas, so obviously want something that will look slightly cozier than a barn once they've filled it with local purchases.

We are not in that category of expat.

Big is good, and bigger is even better, particularly when you look at the inventory of antique rugs that are still rolled up down in our cellar here in the UK.  Or when you consider that I want a kitchen that I can put a sofa (or two) in.  And since both of us do a substantial amount of work from home, those extra bedrooms come in handy for office space.  (No, we could not share office space.  Those of you who know us know why.)

Right, so last month my other half starts scouting around Abu Dhabi for a villa with the following specifications:

• a garden
• a big kitchen
• parking
• within walking distance to something other than a highway

This is harder than it sounds.

At the time, a villa in the enormously popular Khalidiya Village compound had become available and cost less than... well, let's just say less than it did in January.  (I don't think one had been vacant for years, and there has been a waiting list).  I was excited.  Wow!  Walking distance to Khalidiya Mall!  Being able to buy a pint of milk without having to get in a car!  Sadly this was too good to be true.  The thing about these compounds is that they've got one way in and out -- you know, for tight security in a practically crime-free city.  So if you're on the end of the compound farthest from the gate, even though you might be able to throw a baseball at Khalidiya Mall, you'll end up driving to get that pint of milk.  So much for Khalidiya Village.

The next stop was a non-compound villa in Al Karama.  That's the neighbourhood smack in the centre of Abu Dhabi -- potentially within walking distance to all sorts of things.  It has a garden!  A huge kitchen!  Parking for two cars!  It's next to the Palestinian Embassy!  (Ok, maybe that wasn't exactly on our wish-list.)  And at the moment it looks like this:

And not only did the previous tenants live like this, they LEFT it in this condition.  I'd show more pictures, but I think it would be more relaxing if you went out and rented a horror movie.

The funny thing is, we decided it was perfect.  Because when you're moving to a place like Abu Dhabi, "perfect" takes on a whole new meaning.

Newsflash: "Abu Dhabi Rents Fall to Compete with Dubai" from The National

Today's National reports that rents in the capital (Abu Dhabi) are finally starting to fall as the following occur:

1. People leave Abu Dhabi permanently
2. People choose to leave Abu Dhabi and rent in Dubai
3. 500,000 more new villas have become available at Al Raha Gardens

Abu Dhabi Rents Fall to Compete with Dubai

And Emirates Business24/7 tells us the same:

Tenants in Abu Dhabi Expect 50% Lower Rents

This all seems like great news.  Sort of like the weatherman predicting 78 degrees and sunny.

Then it rains.

See, we can't really ever have complete confidence in the weatherman, because he isn't always right.  Nor can we have much confidence in newspaper reports about rental markets in Abu Dhabi, because they change their minds every couple of weeks.

On 28 June 2009, just two short weeks ago, Emirates Business24/7 reported the following:

Rents Rise in Capital Defying Forecasts

In case you don't feel like reading the articles, here's a one-sentence summary of them:

28 June 2009:   Rents are increasing in Abu Dhabi.

14 July 2009: Rents are decreasing in Abu Dhabi.

The more I think about it, the more it's NOT like the weatherman.  The weatherman doesn't tell us that it will be both sunny and rainy.  Some Abu Dhabi journalists, though, appear to be doing just that.

Ready? Set? .....Rent!

I've seen an enormous number of posts of various forums asking whether the salary package someone has been offered is "good."  Even I have posted such questions.  The short answer is that if it can cover housing and still leave you with an acceptable salary, then it's probably ok...

Keeping in mind that housing in Abu Dhabi can easily cost somewhere around Dhs 350,000 annually, or about USD 100,000.  That's right.  A 1 with five zeroes after it. 

One.  Hundred.  Thousand.  Dollars.

And it's all paid with one check up front.

Now that you've had a chance to catch your breath, I'll try to explain in a little more detail.

First off, there are more people in Abu Dhabi (demand) than there are housing units to accommodate them (supply).  Most of us remember (well, those of us who attended class) from Econ 101 what the supply-demand curve looks like.  So prices are high, and the market seems to bear it.  I'm hopeful my clever economist friends (ok, my one clever economist FRIEND) will corroborate this.  The demand in Abu Dhabi this past February was so high that villas were listed and rented within a matter of hours.  Hours.

Second, housing doesn't actually have to cost Dhs 350,000.  It could cost more.  In the winter of 2008-09, a four bedroom villa in Al Raha Gardens (off-island, near Khalifa City A) went for about Dhs 350,000.  A three bedroom apartment right in town was about the same.  A four bedroom villa in Khalidiya or Bateen, if one could be found, cost more like Dhs 500,000.  It was a bad time to move to Abu Dhabi, as rental increases over the past two years were astronomical.

The good news is that they've come down in 2009.  Somewhat.  This recent article from The National, though, explains that many landlords are still looking for the high prices of last year.

Third, as with pretty much anywhere, the farther you venture out of the city, the cheaper housing gets.  And "out of the city" has started to mean "Dubai," thanks to the rental market in Dubai plummeting in the past year.  Unfortunately, the commute from Dubai to Abu Dhabi doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me.  I haven't actually tried it, and have no plans to.

Finally, the process of shopping for a rental villa or apartment can be pretty maddening.  There's no multiple listing service in Abu Dhabi, the same ads seem to crop up all the time, and the few real estate agent websites are updated on an irregular basis at best.  So you need an agent who is well-connected and ready to spring on what is available.  You also need (with most agents) to be prepared to fork over that deposit check right smartly -- my experience this past March involved multiple unreturned phone calls and emails when the agents I spoke to found out I was "just looking" and not ready to sign on the dotted line.

All that said, the good news is that rentals appear to be dropping, particularly in compounds off the island, and that villas in highly sought-after areas like Khalidiya Village have actually become available for the first time in years.

With the caveats mentioned above, here are the best sites I've come across for sussing out the property rental scene in Abu Dhabi:

Khaleej Times Property (powered by propertyfinder.ae)

Gulf News Properties4U

Lease|Rent

2RentUAE

Future View Property

Oh, I should mention that the last two never bothered replying to my emails.