Is the Gulf massively over-priced?

8 May 2008

2 minute read

Salaries might be on an upward trajectory, but a flailing dollar and spiralling cost of living means life is expensive for many bankers, particularly at a junior level.

Job-hopping and a scarcity of talent in the GCC has lead to salaries going through the roof. However, the cost of living has accelerated at an even faster rate, and you could find yourself poorer in spite of earning much more.

Qatar, for example, has seen cost of living spike by 38%, against a 22% rise in wages, while Dubai living expenses have jumped by 37%, against a rise in pay of around 20%.

And it's having an effect on morale. A survey by YouGovSiraj revealed that a third of employees in the Gulf are not satisfied at work. What's more, in Qatar, up to 50% of the survey's expat respondents said the cost of living has made them look elsewhere for work.

With the fallout in the Western markets, banks in the Middle East are snapping up investment bankers for less money, reckons one HR manager in Dubai. They could be in for a shock.

So is the cost of living a turn-off for talent? Or do bankers earn so much they don't give a hoot about living expenses? Your thoughts please...

AUTHOReFinancialCareers Gulf

Insider Comment

ai
aidy
17 May 2008
Bottom line - spiralling cost of housing, and education fuelled by a speculative boom and cash from surplus-rich countries mean that even a massive tax-free salary is going to hit you hard when you move from places like London and New York. Negotiate hard and don't fall for false glamour of the expat-life, being hard-nosed will help you to decide whether it is going to deliver a career-enhancing move.
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Ri
Risk Capital , GCC
13 May 2008
How much is you pay.. buying a home in dubai ???
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re
rev.
12 May 2008
It's not that expensive in monetary terms, particularly if you have hedged your costs by buying property. My wife and girls and I have spent most of our working lives living in HK and London and Dubai, with its large villas, children-friendly facilities and low home help costs, is still cheap compared with them. Where it is expensive is in the amount of time you waste having to deal with layabouts, time wasters and mindless bureaucracy. Traffic is becoming a serious impediment to getting things done and the place is beginning to remind me of bad days in Bangkok in the mid-1990s. We don't travel in the evenings as it takes ages to get anywhere.
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Re
Rech
11 May 2008
Still cheaper than London or New York, and wages are catching up :)
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Gi
Gipsy
9 May 2008
Personally, I was shocked when I moved here. Cigarettes and petrol are cheap as chips, but anything else is horrendously expensive, and most of the property you pay loads for resembles an over-sized university halls of residence...with marble.
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