International City

dubai expat life

Dubai Rent Guide

Are you planning to rent a property in Dubai? Whether it is a villa, flat or bed space – rent negotiation is a skill every expat must acquire.

Although there is too much supply and low demand but rents in Dubai fluctuate very frequently. Some say falling rents in Dubai is a myth.

Gulf News reports rents in Dubai have surged by more than 10% this year.

Dubai Rent Guide

Dubai Rent Guide:

Business Bay

Rent in March 2011 – Dh87.6 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh92.4 per square foot
Current average three-bedroom apartment rental – Dh115,000 to Dh130,000

The Greens

Rent in March 2011 – Dh73.92 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh78.6 per square foot.
Current average three-bedroom apartment rental – Dh120,000. to Dh150,000

The Palm Jumeirah apartments

Rent in March 2011 – Dh76.44 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh81.84 per square foot
Current average three-bedroom Shoreline apartment – Dh160,000 and Dh170,000 for a street view / Dh200,000 and Dh220,000 for a sea view.

International City

Rent in March 2011- Dh66.96 per square foot yearly
Current rent -Dh72 per square foot
Current average two-bedroom apartment rental – Dh40,000 to Dh50,000

Jumeirah Lakes Tower (JLT)

Rent in March 2011- Dh60.36 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh64.92 per square foot
Current average three-bedroom apartment rentals – Dh110,000 to Dh130,000

Arabian Ranches

Rent in March 2011- Dh56.52 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh61.2 per square foot
Current average four-bedroom villa rentals – Dh220,000 to Dh250,000

Dubai Marina apartments

Rent in March 2011 2011 – Dh74.76 per square foot per year
Current rent – Dh81.84 per square foot
Current average rentals for a four-bedroom apartment – Dh140,000 to Dh200,000.

The Springs, The Meadows and The Lakes

Rent in March 2011 2011 – Dh53.76 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh59.16 per square foot
Current average three-bedroom townhouse rentals in The Lakes – Dh180,000.
Current average four-bedroom villa rental in The Meadows – Dh250,000

Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR)

Rent in March 2011 — Dh73.92 per square foot yearly
Current rent — Dh82.2 per square foot
Current average rentals for a four-bedroom apartment – Dh180,000 to Dh220,000

Discovery Gardens (DG)

Rent in March 2011 – Dh49.68 per square foot a year.
Current rent – Dh49.8 per square foot.
Current average : two-bedroom rentals – Dh55,000 to Dh70,000 a year

Palm Jumeirah villas

Rent in March 2011 – Dh73.92 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh77.28 per square foot
Current average four-bedroom villa rental – Dh350,000

Downtown Dubai

Rent in March 2011 – Dh92.88 per square foot yearly
Current rent – Dh97.44 per square foot
Current average four-bedroom apartment rental – Dh200,000 to Dh240,000

dubai marina

Dubai Massage Centers – Getting a Massage in International City





Dubai Massage Centers are getting notorious for offering more than just a massage – something referred by the customers as “happy ending”.

Dubai Massage Centers in International City

There are more than 100 registered Dubai Massage Centers offering everything from Thai Massage, Chinese Massage, and Swedish massage, Full Body Massage to siatsu and ayurvedic therapy. Most hotels also have spas offering massage therapy of one kind or the other. Some places offer escort service as well.

International City has three licensed massage centres, but in recent times they seem to have been dwarfed by door-to-door freelance masseuses.




By law, Dubai Massage Centers workers must be licensed and must follow Dubai Municipality Public Health Department’s hygiene and decency guidelines. They are also periodically inspected.

Dubai Police have in the past advised those who want to get massage treatment to go to licensed Dubai Massage Centers and warned the public not to allow strangers to enter their homes, as some may be undocumented or have criminal intent.

UAE residents are no strangers to flyers and brochures promoting illegal massage centers left behind on car windshields in parking lots and pushed underneath the main entrance door in both low-rise as well as high-rise apartments by ‘enterprising’ individuals.


But what should one do when an individual offers a full-body massage at home or even at an illegal and unlicensed centre? How should one react to the ‘massage centre’ cards left on car windshields and front doors? Will the woman or the men found distributing such literature (if they can be called that) face any penalties? Or will those who fall in the trap and take up on those illicit offers face any penalties?

Dubai residents from responding to such ads where girls offer to host them at their homes or at the clients’ homes as it could lead to bigger crimes such as robbery, violence murder. Soliciting the services of such dubious massage centres have led to such incidents in the past.

Dubai residents are warned to stay away from such offers. A Police Office recently pointed out that the customer might become a victim of such girls who go to other people’s homes to give ‘massages’. The clients who fall into these illegal traps have no information on these girls except the phone number that they give out in the flyers and visiting cards. So, when they become victims of crime, they have no way of tracking these culprits.



Dubai Residents to be fined for hanging clothes, having barbecue in balconies

Dubai Residents to be fined for hanging clothes, having barbecue in balconies

Residents of Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Lakes Tower, International City and Discovery Gardens will start getting fines from March if they are found hanging clothes or having a barbecue on their balcony.

Trakhees, the organisational arm of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, supervises residential communities, which also includes Jumeirah Heights, Jumeirah Village and Jebel Ali Downtown, will end its awareness campaign that started in October last year by month-end.

“We will end our awareness campaign by end-February and start issuing fines to those not obeying the law from March,” a company spokesman told this website.

In November, the Community Conformance Division of Trakhees had informed residents not to fix satellite dishes on the facades or balconies of their buildings; not to use balconies as places of storage for any purpose other than seasonal furniture pieces; not to hang sheets, clothes or curtains or rugs or mops or laundry on balconies or railings of homes and not to have barbecues in their balconies.

The authority says it has undertaken a comprehensive community-based awareness campaign that includes a range of awareness-raising posters and brochures in five languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu, and Chinese. Those failing to follow the rules would face a fine Dh500 per offence.

Separately, tenants breaching the occupancy limit regulation set up Trakhees could face fines of up to Dh50,000. The maximum allowable occupancy limit for apartments is one person per 200 square feet from the total property area.

From: Emirates 24X7

International City rents drop below Dhs 15,000

International City

Rents in the International City area of Dubai have slipped below AED15,000 a year for the first time, as prices in Dubai’s battered property market continue to fall.

Several studios in the Nakheel development are available for as little as AED14,000 a year, although most landlords require potential tenants to pay the full amount in a single cheque.

A series of studios measuring 455 sq ft in size are listed in many of the development’s clusters, including England, China, Italy and Greece.

The prices are more than 50 percent lower than the AED30,000-35,000 bracket recommended in RERA’s first Dubai rental index, published in October 2009.

Dubai, the worst-hit property market in the Gulf, saw house prices more than halve in late-2008 as the financial crash wiped out project funding and brought a halt to its real estate boom.

Nakheel was one of the biggest casualties of the crash, suspending at least 100 projects in the wake of the downturn.
Earlier this month, real estate consultancy Asteco said that rents in International City had fallen by four percent in the second quarter of the year.

The drop was worse in Discovery Gardens, also developed by Nakheel. Asteco said that rents in the development near Jebel Ali had fallen by 11 percent in the last three months.

Both projects have suffered lower values as depressed prices elsewhere in Dubai have led renters to move to other locations.

International City residents have long complained about poor infrastructure, the lack of sufficient access to the development, and the proximity of a nearby sewage processing plant.

From: Arabian Business