What NOBODY Tells You About Moving to Dubai in 2025

all right YouTube we are back and this is my honest thoughts of what it's like to live in Dubai after being here for around 6 months and let me just get out straight out of the bat like I'm not saying I'm professional living in Dubai all this kind of talk etc etc I'm just giving you my honest opinions of what found about the experience of living here after six months okay so I'm still newbie etc etc etc but this exactly what feel about it my personal experiences and hopefully it will help you if you're trying to understand or gather information about living in Dubai know there's lot of people from the UK that are wanting to move here at the moment and the first thing say is it was 100% the right decision for me I'm very very happy here on personal level on lifestyle level everything about it so far has been absolutely fantastic but I'm going to delve deeper into some of the main points that I've kind of thought about which might help you and also might help you to consider or reconsider if you want to move here or not cuz they're not always positive points for certain types of people okay so Straight Out The Gate it doesn't cost as much as people make it out to be when you start to think about the living costs in the UK or in Europe or America etc etc in the west it actually is on comparable level with certain parts of the UK clearly obviously there's some areas in the UK going to be cheaper and there some areas in the UK are going to be more expensive actually actually think that London is probably more expensive than Le in Dubai especially if you start to live in the central London because in Dubai you can choose to live further out in different places so yeah overall actually think that London is probably more expensive than living in Dubai now there's some things that cost lot more than it would in the UK or Europe and there's some things that cost lot less and it's all down to geographical and type of labor market that they've got here so things like groceries rent phone bills internet things like this they cost more compared to the UK now groceries for example they can cost wildly more expensive depending on the kind of things that you're buying like for example watermelon and fruits things like this that they have to import they can be lot more expensive other things though such as taxes food delivery dry cleaning home cleaning so having somebody come around to your house and clean your house Etc all these kind of things they cost huge amount less like massively massively different so we actually have in our Villa maid and she's from Ethiopia and we actually pay her double she was expecting and still for us this is good option because it makes our life lot easier so you can have for example nanes you can have like living me you can have me that comes two three times week and clean your house etc etc and this costs nothing like it would cost in the UK okay so second part restaurants and social Gatherings here are incredible like if you like going out if you like going to nice restaurants if you like little bit of little party every now and then cannot tell you how good it is over here for this kind of Lifestyle the service is absolutely impeccable in restaurants and Hospitality they just got it they've just got it perfect in almost every single way when went back to the UK and went into like restaurant just thought this is just absolutely in every single way that they've just got it right there's another good thing that absolutely love about this place as well there's ballet parking everywhere you go and almost certainly it's going to be free if you're spending money in that restaurant or that location so that is great thing is it's just so nice to being able to pull to the wherever you are the restaurant you jump out your car let the ballet person park it for you like this in the UK is just just unheard of really and it would cost lot of money and if it if it is available so yeah it makes big big difference to that kind of experience of going to nice restaurant or hotel or venue yeah absolutely love the valet parking everywhere you go here now Dubai offers many different Lifestyles from partying and social life to entrepreneurship family orientated there's lot of sports over here as well and also lot of business as well so if you have certain type of Life Cell the buy and ker for it it's it's very much very inclusive place in that respect I've seen all different types of Life over here it's really nice to see families having such nice kind of Life over here like you walk down the communities that we liveing for example everybody's smiling the weather's nice people are out with their children they've got the the parks in the communities or the marina and they're all walking around they've got the school kids clubs and yeah it's just overall very nice lifestyle over here for different types of people and if you're hard worker for example if you're an entrepreneur there's no better place in my opinion right now than to start over in divide because of the tax reasons and also because of the encouraging government behind it over here so yeah if if you're worried about the type of lifestyle that you going to live depending on your own personal situation wouldn't worry about it too much feel like everybody here has some way of of of of having good life person okay so here's one thing think is quite important to to state do not come here if you are not interested and working hard if you are someone who just likes to sit around lounge around kind of like not interested in becoming the best version of yourself not interested in providing to the economy then this is not the place for you like this place is made for people who are hard workers who want to contribute to society who want to conduct themselves in the correct manner if you want to sit around and try to be on benefits etc etc this is not the kind of place for you obviously there's no benefits for for tourists or anything like that or xat so yeah that's not going to work but if you're the kind of person who just likes an easy life who wants to go and work night to five get home and never interested in in progressing in themselves and bettering themselves then my opinion is that you shouldn't come here because it's not the right environment for you this place is is is really for entrepreneurs people want to work hard people want to better themselves you see it lot in the gyms the gyms are always full you see it in the Run clubs you know just the kind of Lifestyle they have here is centered around people who are interested in working hard on themselves or on the business or in their jobs all right so next point it can be little bit overwhelming at the start when you're first getting over here so would say this this mainly down to like the Visas the permits the Emirates ID is little bit confusing because there's there's some places to tell you one thing some place will tell you another and the process can be little bit confusing so in my opinion in that in that respect it would be lot easier if you had somebody over here who you knew or company could help you to get yourself set up because if you're trying to figure it out all on your own then it kind of be little bit overwhelming can take time and you got to kind of know the kind of where places to go and who you need to speak to and what documents you need etc etc so my advice is to find somebody that you know as friend who's done it before ask them some guidance or find company who can help you do that transfer so maybe finding yourself if you're trying to set up business it's definitely worth reaching out to professional company who can set your company up in terms of the legal structure get your Emirates ID sorted get your assorted etc etc now if you do need help with that do actually have friend who is professional in this and they they helped me with my setup and it was very very good very professional there was no hiccups because there's lot of Cheaper companies out there that are doing this on popup and and disappear basis and they're not good business to work with so you need to work with reputable business that can help you with this kind of process next Point buying car here is also bit of real hassle so you need to have an Emirates ID to basically purchase car and put it into your own name now the different thing about living in the UAE is that when you buy car every car motorcycle van whatever when you are transferring the ownership it has to be taken to government approved location where they do registration test or transfer of ownership test and this is basically like as if we would call anot back in the UK and the reason that this is done is that it helps you to avoid buying bad quality cars because every every single car has to be inspected by government body to ensure that it's up to standards before it can be sold now this can be benefit and hassle at the same time because the reason it's hassle is it takes more time to be able to go through that process you know you've got to go down you're got to meet the seller they've got to have their emirat ID you've got to have your em ID You' got to have all the documentation they've got to have all the documentation you got to make sure the car passes the test if it doesn't pass the test and it needs to be fixed before it can be sold etc etc etc so yes it can be little bit of hassle all in that respect because if you don't have the right documents etc etc then it can be little bit more time consuming than what we' expect in the UK where you can just sell the car to somebody give the log book and they're gone but in in other respects is also very good benefit because it helps to ensure that all the cars that are being sold peer-to-peer are of good quality or at least in the quality that can be class asot passable so yeah personally wish it could be little bit more efficient in some ways but do agreee with the process of having this kind of like government approved official body that inspects all the cars it's also good way for the government to make money in my opinion moving on to housing okay so finding rental property can be little bit difficult if you don't know the process and you don't know any good agents but if you do have the right agent and you know with the process it's not actually that difficult so it's very simple in the ways that you hear you pay for your rent in checks so imagine your rent is 12 months well you pay it every maybe if you pay it in 12 checks you pay it every month like we order on monthly basis but sometimes you pay it in four checks or two checks or just one check and obviously the less checks that you pay means the less payments but the more discount you could get on the red so we personally paid for our Villa in two checks so we paid six months up front and then after six months we'll pay the second check which is the second six months up front but you actually give the check to the landlord so he keeps it in reserve but he can't cash it until the date of the six months or whatever the date is afterwards so would recommend absolutely finding good rental agent that can help you to Source the right property understand exactly where you want to live and that's another good point actually would test where you want to live before you go ahead and sign lease anywhere my personal opinion is what you should do is when you get here rent an Airbnb in two to three different locations that you've been thinking about and then live in them for like 2 3 weeks and then get feel for what the area is like what the traffic like what the immunities are like nearby and then make your decision on where you want to come kind of find your kind of like place to be so we did this personally as well when me and Mah har moved here we moved into an apartment in an airb in maidan and originally we had thought okay yeah we want to live near maidan because it's near of DFC on Business Bay it's got good transport links to charer for me Percy at the time and it's not million miles away from the Marine in the Palm but after living there we realized it's not for us we didn't want to live in an apartment the traffic was nightmare around there the amenities were difficult to access because all the roads that were going up and around it was just big ball leg basically to get anywhere from that location so we decided it's not for us and eventually we actually decided to go for villa because we wanted more space and we were happy to live further out field so we ended up moving to Arabian ranchers which is Mr Community it's around 25 minutes from the pal 20 to 25 minutes depending on traffic to Business Bay the IFC and we got good access to all the other areas and we can can personally get straight onto the motorway and head up to charer from my location it's little bit further away but actually when you think about the traffic which is the main thing that causes the delays here it's important to have good access to the mway so yeah absolutely test the locations before you go inside long-term lease anywhere and that location that you choose is going to massively affect your lifestyle as well like if you live in Marina you're very much going to find that leaving Marina is going to be pain in the ass because of the traffic Marine is big big traffic problem there but you'll also probably live in the kind of family communities Apartments etc etc you've got the Palm which is more touristy again bit of pain to get on and off and get to the other areas the IFC is very much Financial Center Business Center etc etc and where we live is like family communities Villas and bit more of like normal lifestyle would say next Point having friendship group or network around you here is essential in my opinion like think if you moved over here by yourself you didn't know anybody think it could get very lonely very quickly so having good friendship group or network around you to support you when you get here to meet with to go on coffees go the shisha go for some drinks etc etc think that makes big big difference so absolutely try and have group of friends out here if you can do before you come here if you do come out here on your own then I'll recommend going to some like local networking events or going for actually don't know what would do in that situation probably just go to to bars and try and make some friends go to scout out local football teams for example depend on way you male or female etc etc but also have Network made my decision to move over here massively more simple was really happy that was in the network that I'm in it meant that had lots of friends when got here and actually moved in with one of the friends in the network as well so if you are interested in joining one of the the networks that I'm in and learning more about that you can drop me DM because we have lots of members over here in Dubai and it would make your life lot easier especially if you're an entrepreneur male entrepreneur interested in kind of Fitness interested in fighting interested in doing better EMB bettering yourself and you want that kind of sport group around you then it's definitely good option for you if you can afford to join so this place is perfect for people who have their own business in my opinion especially if you can work remotely if you're freelancer etc etc and you can work from anywhere in the world then think Dubai is probably one of the best places that you can possibly opt for because you've got so many good conditions for yourself as business owner to thrive in in every way the good government is trying to help businesses to grow here you've got favorable tax conditions you got favorable labor conditions if you want to hire people it can be bit of ball Lake in some ways to get real physical business up off the ground which is what I'm experiencing now as I'm trying to scale driven but think once you've got yourself established here then you really are in the right place to make lot of money because there's people with money here people want to do business together people are much more open to networking connecting with each other and the tax conditions overall are probably the most fantastic that you could ask for coming from the UK to Dubai and tax perspective is dream no income tax low corporation tax low vat you just really notice it and we had good conversation about this between me and my friends actually it's like the money that You' spend on tax in the UK you spend it on living here so whilst your costs of living might go up you're actually getting more for your money because instead of spending on tax which is just wasted in the UK on stupid things you're actually getting that back in your pocket and you're spending it on yourself and your lifestyle so 100% say that this is the best place for entrepreneurs who want to grow and scale their business and especially so if you are an online freelancer you can just get yourself set up over here open business invoice all around the world 0% tax you know at what point can you say that that is not not good and think that you actually see that tax is being spent correctly here you see improvements all the time you can see where the money is going that is my biggest problem with UK don't actually have problem with paying tax as long as my tax is actually being spent correctly and that is the issue in the UK is being wasted at every single opportunity next Point again is quite quite dear to me and you can see I'm driving I'm always driving I'm always in car or motorbike the roads are so much better here they are so much better there's no potholes anywhere nice big six Lane motorways the speed cameras this there's lot of them and yes they can be annoying but you're not going to get six points on your license for driving 20 mph over the over the speed limit you're going to get fine you pay it off and you learn from your mistakes but there's no this Draconian laws of taking your license off you straight away because you've been speeding couple of bit times too much you know it's it's great over here in that respect you can have nice long Journeys up into the mountains you just don't get bothered like you do in the UK you don't see police all over the place you don't have some but you're not always constantly watching your speedometer to make sure that you're not going 2 miles an hour over it when you go for speed speed camera because they've got the great they've got 10% Grace well it's 20 km an hour Grace on every speed camera actually and the speeds are little bit faster than UK so you know in my opinion it's fantastic opportunity okay so coming on to the final points now one negative actually think about this place is that the banking is little bit far behind in terms of the systems and the way it's set up over here and understand there's reasons behind this okay which we're not going to go into but the banking in some ways is is inefficient opening up an account here can be quite pain in the ass they ask you for loads loads and loads of questions that just don't even see the relevance of it for example applying for credit card on my bank account they're asking questions like what's the nearest Landmark to your hometown in Derby and I'm like the nearest Landmark what what relevant to that does that have to credit card application and there's just questions after questions after questions and documents and documents and documents and like I'm trying to open up debit card for the business at the moment which is another massive problem apparently getting debit card asking for landline numbers and PO Box certificates for the business and it's like in what world do you need landline number to open up to get debit card nowadays and PO Box who uses PO Box you know nobody so there's there's little bit things that are bit far behind in my opinion in terms of the banking system the apps are little bit slow compared to the UK ones so yeah they definitely need to innovate and upgrade their banking system in some ways in terms of their efficiencies and application processes in my opinion but there's the other side of it that here cash is King like cash is absolutely King over here I've never seen anything like it compared to Italy mean God you can't even take th000 EUR out in cash in Italy and England as well now they're starting to ask questions when you're taking large amounts of cash out even up to like 2 3,000 like where do it come from etc etc it's pain in the ass and it's it's annoying to be honest you feel like criminal even though you're not doing anything wrong in the UAE you can pretty much do anything any amount with cash and it's beautiful thing absolutely beautiful thing next Point LIF sty overall here is great literally cannot fault it can't fault it it's healthy living you've got healthy food being able to be delivered wherever you are people are living healthy in every single way there's gyms everywhere there's great little cafes for you to go do like co-working or meeting friends there's literally Hospitality everywhere you can think of very very suited to entrepreneurial people and social people in my opinion and also for families again like mentioned before so yeah think it's great lifestyle in every way especially if you want to just get your head down you want to live healthy lifestyle you're sick of going to the pub every single weekend sick of getting on the on the packet you know all this kind of stuff it makes big big difference living here for sure absolutely love the lifestyle 100% and another point on that is and think is very important point because you don't appreciate it until you've actually experienced it here is that safety is big big thing here and you just get so used to living here with the safety aspect you know leaving your car unlocked being able to leave valuables on the you know just being able to leave valuables in in places that you would normally like if you were going to the supermarket in England you wouldn't ever leave anything valuable in your car you wouldn't leave your laptop on the seat for example you won't leave an an expensive bag you wouldn't leave your phone in your car it would just get nicked broken into and and stolen whereas here you don't have to worry about this kind of stuff you know and once you've experienced that way of living you start to kind of like get used to it and then you're like God don't don't want to go back to the UK where have to worry about these things all the time like where I'm parking my car need to get security tracker on my car cuz someone might break in seat or steal it in the night when the with with the Jammers you know there's so many different ways that this can affect your mentality and your lifestyle that you just get used to it and you think why doesn't why doesn't everybody else just live like this you know it's it's big big hack and it makes big difference to your to your actual like well-being for sure like walking around with watch on feel comfortable 24/7 but wouldn't feel comfortable in the UK so yeah it does make big difference here's question asked someone ask me my friends like do miss the pub no not really was never one of those guys who enjoyed going the pub on on regular basis you know yeah every now and then with my friends it was okay but would go in the pub every night no absolutely not so people are thinking you know you don't have absolutely there's loads of PS here there's loads of places that you can go to if you actually like that kind of Lifestyle you say I'm going to miss the Pu Etc there's loads of places you can do that stuff you know and they're all ran exactly as if they were in the UK so yeah don't see any problem with that don't think that's big issue in my opinion one of the other most important things is the weather the it's February right now it's 25 degrees outside it's sunny almost every single day and that mean can't say it's small thing because it is massive thing but waking up every single morning to nice weather completely changes your mental health like can't overstate this enough like it is big big difference waking up in the UK to cold dream just just depressing weather every single morning for months on end rain rain rain that just brings you down it brings you down so which noticed when lived in Italy noticed when lived in New Zealand and then you notice it even more when you go back to UK and can't lit literally can't tell you how important it is right now for me to wake up to nice weather because it really improves my move on daily basis so and another thing people say there like there's no nature here well guys there's plenty of outdoor activities to do you do go out and do them all time myself not not that much cuz I'm working all the time but you've got plenty of places that you can go to and it's just different type of aesthetic you know different type of aesthetic to the UK so you know it's not the end of the world there's plenty of things to do just don't confine yourself to the marine or the Palm go out to the desert go out to hat for example me and my friends recently we got the Ford Ranger Raptor out into the desert we got some wood started fire you know ordered food to the desert even had delivery de delivered to the desert for example you know this is this is the stuff that you can do here so but anyway that was my honest thoughts after 6 months in Dubai hope this video was helpful and yeah we'll be back soon with another video when to come up with an idea maybe if you have an idea what you'd like me to give you my opinion on or some thoughts on for example just drop me in the comments below don't forget to subscribe and like the video I've just arrived at the workshop now so yeah time to get to work and thanks for watching guys