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Sheika Taylfetha
Joined: 12 Apr 2009
Posts: 13
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 Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject: Cost of living |
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| Hi can anyone tell me whether the cost of living in Qatar is cheaper or more expensive than the UAE? Would really love to know as accepting an offer probably depends on the answer. Thanks |
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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| Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| It is definitely more expensive. The same item in the UAE may cost a few dirhams or a few hundred dirhams less. Buy a copy of the Gulf News and compare the prices to the Gulf Times. You will see the price of goods in the UAE is cheaper, especially food, cars and electronics. The rental rates are coming down in Doha but that's because there are so many vacant apartments on the market. Some buildings are now in limbo as construction on them has stopped. It's not as bad as Dubai but there are a few buildings where nobody has been working for at least 2 months. They also have been sending construction workers here home. So if you're thinking of saving money here, the place you save it is on entertainment. There's less to do here and fewer watering holes. If you come to Qatar, plan to stay home and pocket your floos. The cost of living is high. Your money doesn't go as far; but as I said, don't spend on entertainment, then you can save. |
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Sheika Taylfetha
Joined: 12 Apr 2009
Posts: 13
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| Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:00 am Post subject: cost of living |
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| Thanks for all this info, Wilberforce. It would seem that the UAE offer is the one that is likely to leave me with more savings and the best lifestyle. I didn't really want to buy a car but it seems it's pretty essential in Qatar - which is a bit of a bore. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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Most people in the UAE find a car essential too. Much depends on the location of your housing and your employer, of course. But, as luck would have it, it always seems that one of the two is a place that one has to wait a very long time to see a taxi. When the temps are over 40 and the humidity at 90%, it gets old real fast.
VS |
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Mine's a pint
Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Posts: 46
Location: Somewhere
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| Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:27 am Post subject: |
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| You would have a very hard time getting around without a car in either country, as VS points out. Taxis in Dubai would cost you a bomb. Taxis in AD are somewhat cheaper and distances are smaller. Al Ain might be easier - but I don't speak from experience on that one. In Doha, forget it. You wouldn't get a taxi unless you booked it hours in advance. Petrol is DIRT cheap in Doha, but cars aren't. Deals can be had though through Qatar Living. Deals can be had in Abu Dhabi on Airport Road. |
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thursday12
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 93
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Dis country is real expensive & salaries need ta go up but dat ain't likely. |
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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| I had to pay 7 riyals for a kg of bananas. A year ago I paid 3.5 QR. The only thing I've seen come down in price is cucumbers and I don't eat them! |
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Qatar brightest spot in Mideast: IMF
Web posted at: 7/12/2009 3:0:18
Source ::: QNA
WASHINGTON: The Middle East region will grow 2.5 percent this year, less than half the six percent seen in 2008, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said, blaming a sharp fall in oil prices.
�Among oil producing countries, the sharpest slowdown is expected in the UAE, where the exit of external funds has contributed to a large contraction in liquidity, a sizeable fall in property and equity prices and substantial pressure in the banking system,� the IMF said in its World
Economic Outlook.
The brightest spot in the Middle East remains Qatar, which is projected to grow 18 percent this year, up from 16.5 percent in 2008, the IMF said.
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Dorry
Joined: 05 Aug 2009
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 6:47 pm Post subject: Cost of Living: Qatar vs UAE |
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Hi Shaikha,
The cost of living in Qatar is MUCH higher than in the UAE, with a few exceptions. Grocery bills for me were between 50% - 300% higher. Taxis - or I should say cars, since to get a 'taxi' you'd need to book hours ahead - are more than double. Rent, alcohol, cleaning people all hideous.
Stuff that's cheaper includes petrol (gas), haircuts (darlink!) and some forms of entertainment/tourism (e.g. totally fab Qatar Natural History Group - ok you're gonna die of boredom). |
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 647
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| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:34 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
The cost of living in Qatar is MUCH higher than in the UAE, with a few exceptions. Grocery bills for me were between 50% - 300% higher. Taxis - or I should say cars, since to get a 'taxi' you'd need to book hours ahead - are more than double. Rent, alcohol, cleaning people all hideous.
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Yes the prices are too high and about to get higher. The only thing that's going down is the rents and that's because there are literally thousands of empty apartments and villas in and around Doha. Construction overkill.
Some projects have actually stopped and you see half-finished buildings in parts of town. A lot of the new buildings are really bad - poor ventilation, NO PARKING, small pokey rooms, small windows, buildings crammed together one next to the other so there is no natural light and people have to turn on their lights in the daytime!! This in a country of abundant natural sunlight!!! These buildings are energy wasters. They say they are building 'green' but putting up appartment buildings so close together with no natural light filtering in means people use up more electricity, not less. There is more than enough land to space the buildings properly but greedy landlords and landowners just pile them up and crowd them in neighborhoods that look like rabbit warrens. You expect this in Chicago but not here!!! The West Bay area has hundreds of new skyscrapers with hardly any parking. It's going to be a big mess soon. Bad bad planning. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 337
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:13 pm Post subject: So what else is new? Doha 2nd most expensive city in ME |
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Maybe this is one of the reasons QP cut staff. Budget control and contraints. A lot of money wasted on teaching people who don't do the whole 9 yards. The prices of everything keep going up and up especially now. Save your flus, you never know how expensive things are going to get.
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Doha second most expensive city in Mideast
8/27/2009
DOHA: Doha is the second most expensive city in the Arab world, according to a latest study. The USB, one of the world�s leading financial firms, recently released the 14th edition of its �Prices and Earnings� review which has included Doha for the first time in the list of 73 international cities.
Placed in the 39th position in global ratings, Doha is the second most expensive city in the Middle East after Dubai and before Manama. The rating is based on 122 common goods and services. The study looks at the prices of goods and services, and wages and working hours for 14 professionals in 73 cities round the world.
The study reveals that Dubai has surpassed New York and London which were the biggest financial cities in the world. The finical crisis had lead to fluctuation in the rankings of many cities. London which was the second most expensive in the 2006 review plummeted nearly 20 places, landing in the middle of the Western European rankings. Doha is the most expensive city in the world when it comes to a low-class furnished four bedroom flat. With a monthly rent of
$4,210, even posh cities like New York ($4,110) and Dubai ($3,950) come after Doha.
However, in high-class four-bedroom apartments, Dubai is one of the most expensive following New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. In Dubai, such apartments cost $7,090, whereas in Doha they cost $5,580 and $ 3,400 in Manama.
The average rent in most local houses in Qatar is $1,650, $2,160 in Dubai and $890in Manama. With this Doha and Dubai rank among the top 10 most expensive cities in terms of average rents.
Expenditure on some of the 122 goods and services in Doha came to $2,006, while in Dubai it was $2,522 and in Manama $1,773.
One of the common features of �Prices and Earnings� is the �Big Mac index�, which has been a trusty indicator of how long an average wage-earner has to work in order to afford that universal meal in each city. This type of comparison is ideal for products that can be purchased around the world in the same quality � products such as an iPod.
People in Doha had to work more as per this index. To earn a Big Mac, people here had to work 34 minutes, whereas in Dubai people could earn the snack with 18 minutes of work and in Manama with 25 minutes of work. To buy an 8 GB iPod nano, Doha residents would have to labour for 35 minutes, compared to 20 minutes and 23 minutes for those in Dubai and Manama, respectively.
While Zurich in Switzerland paid its employees the most (more than $22 an hour), Dubai paid an average of just $10.10, Doha $5.40 and Manama $6.30. The lowest pay was in Mumbai, where workers received an average of just $1.20 an hour.
Food prices are the highest in Japan, at $710, and Geneva ($660) based on 39 standard western food items. In Doha, food cost $379, in Dubai $426 and in Manama $341. Mumbai had the cheapest foods,
costing $153.
Taxi prices were the cheapest in Doha at $3.69 for a five-kilometre ride. In Dubai, the same ride cost $4.27 and in Manama $10.61.
Meanwhile, an evening three-course-meal in a good restaurant in Doha cost $59, ranking it the fourth most expensive place, close behind Dubai where such a meal cost $60.
Also, for a short break, which includes an overnight stay in a first-class hotel and various other services, the city could be the second most expensive after Tokyo. A break in Doha and in London cost $1,000 each, following Tokyo, where it can cost $1,130.
The ultra-liberal economic policies of Qatar and Dubai have created an extremely favourable environment for foreign companies and workers here. However, employees in Middle East work more than their counterparts in other countries. Workers in Doha, Dubai and Manama racked up longer hours, averaging 2,210 per year, 308 more than the global average.
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mesquite
Joined: 04 Jan 2009
Posts: 80
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| Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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The cost of living in Qatar is abnormally inflated. This is the richest country on earth per capita yet there are starving Bangladeshis, Koreans and Nepalis in the labor camps. These men are earning less than $200.00 a month. Nepalis are recruited a salaries ranging from 400 - 600 riyals a month. It is just as bad for the Bangladeshis. These are desperate men trying to earn a living to support their family back home.
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Khalid Bhatti, CWI, Pakistan
Immigrant workers in the Middle East are fighting against the slave conditions they face and the non-payment of their salaries. Although they belong to different countries, religions and nationalities, they are showing class unity. They are showing how the workers of different countries, nationalities, religions, races and languages can be united on a class basis. Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Filipino and Nepalese workers are united against super-exploitation and repression. Construction sites, in particular, have been turned into slave camps for the building workers.
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Some workers haven't been paid for months and are at the mercy of their mercenary sponsors who couldn't care less. While a cup of coffee in most cafes costs at least $3.00 - $5.00, these men don't even earn enough for a decent daily meal. Even the less expensive cafes like Eli France, started to overcharge for their cups of java, they all want to jump on the greedy greedy bandwagon to make money.
The whole situation is a contradiction in terms - a rich country where tens of thousands of poor Asians labor for less than 600 riyals a month under the boiling sun to build ugly luxury skyscrapers so owners can charge tenants an exhorbitant 20,000 riyals a month (or more) for a view which quickly disappears the minute another ugly skyscraper is put up next door or behind or in front. One guy I know pays 23,000 riyals per month for his 2 bedroom with a view. Well the view is gone and he can see into someone's bedroom opposite. He can't break his lease, it has another year to run. The once sunny apartment is now like a cave. Interestingly enough, the rents in his building have gone down to 17,000 riyals a month but he is locked into his 23,000 agreement. Where else would you pay this kind of money to live in darkness?
For a country with no income tax and very little import duty there is no reason why rents and cost of living should be so high. The slave laborers are paid less than subsistance salaries. Despite importing materials, it costs much less to build a skyscraper in Qatar than it does in Chicago because labor costs are practically negligible. So why are rents so high? The majority of buildings are shoddily built and shoddily finished with cheap materials. Even buildings one or two years old show cracks and faults.
http://www.ameinfo.com/60309.html
The rental fees are equally ridiculous. Why should it cost so much to live in a cramped apartment with tiny windows (or no windows in some cases).Most of these buildings have no or very limited parking space. The people who give out the building permits clearly operate on some kind of favoritism system. Some of the streets are not even streets - they are alleys and cars can only go one way. Expatriates are being victimized by a greedy society who uses them, exploits them and then disposes of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkaZZrmOgk4\ |
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