Job Discussion Forums

[BigSS]

I started at UAEU in August and I�ve known from the beginning that the �housing crisis� was largely a fiction. Sure, prices have gone up, a lot, but there are plenty of villas and flats to be had. Some are even reasonably priced! Realtors are reluctant to show them, but, if you leave a packet of cash on the desk of your Housing staff member, you will get one of them. I recently learned this from a friend who has a few real estate companies in town. I�d wondered how some people were able to secure housing after a week when the rest of us were stuck in hotels for months on end. Tonight I learned something new. There are many many more homes available than I�d ever imagined. I knew that the university had empty homes available when it claimed to have none at all--I�ve seen them, I�ve been inside them, I�ve noted how many of them are still empty. But tonight I discovered another 50 or more university homes; I was taking a walk and saw them. There�s a UAEU sign on Shakboot between Twam and Amir Ibn Al Aas. It�s fenced in with barbwire. Inside this compound are massive villas owned by the university, all empty. They probably need a little work, but they are great homes that faculty should have moved into a long time ago, rather than be stuffed inside grubby little rabbit warrens. But of course, if this happened, the university wouldn�t have been able to award contracts for new buildings. You know, the contracts given to the companies owned by people working for the university�

[adorabilly]

BigSS.

There could easily be a simple explaination as to why those villas are empty. A lack of power.

I know here in RAK, the waiting list for new villas and businesses to get power is close to 24 months.

There are tons of villas here that are standing empty, but they don't have the power to run them. I know the assistant manager for HSBC. He just finished building a fantastically beautiful villa. And it has stood empty for over a year because even he (with his wasta) can't get power from FEWA.

[helenl]

FEWA runs the electricity in RAK? I only ask because it's DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority in Dubai) and SEWA in Sharjah, ADWEA in Abu Dhabi, etc.

Perhaps because it's a relatively small emirate?

[adorabilly]

I didn't realize that dubai and sharjah had their own EWA (dewa, sewa etc.)

RAK is under FEWA for water and power. (it goes to show that I am still a newbie with 18 months in country and didn't realize that FEWA wasn't for everyone.

[helenl]

LOL! FEWA sure isn't for everyone!

[Iamherebecause]

Not heard of a power crisis in Al Ain, maybe AADC is more efficient than all those EWAs. But yes I've seen the empy villas too, and know of other empty places on the UAEU stock, and would love to know what's going on and why so many staff from all faculties - it's not just UGRU - have been put in small, nay sometimes poky housing.