You're preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned. We're also hoping to leave within the next year. Yes, I come from a country that has high taxes but at least we get medical care (and good medical care) for those taxes and plenty of roads to drive on so that we don't have to go 10k out of our way to use the fly over to go back to the place that we originally wanted to get to, and free education for the kiddies.
There are good things about Dubai, like the sunshine everyday, but as Dorothy from Kansas once said, "There's no place like home."
So, DH and I are about to embark on a new chapter in our lives and are planning on making our way back home within the next 6 months to a year. I wish it was sooner to be honest. No, this is not a Dubai bashing thread...but I am just curious to see if anyone else feels the same way we do.
It just got to be too much. I feel like we are nickle and dimed constantly. DEWA is outrageous, ( a racket actually), we pay such high rent to live in a "nice" place yet the maintenance is awful, the finishing is terrible and they wont fix anything. Went to renew our lease and was charged "an admin fee of 500 aed-yet according to RERA this is illegal. The development basically said to all of us tenants "too bad, pay or leave". Don't get me started on the phantom speeding tickets that are costing a fortune now that we have to renew our car regsitration. So yeah, I know its tax free here, but if you break down how expensive everything here is...from mobile phone service, to satelite television, to dewa, to food, to rta fees, to salik...and I have done the math here...even with taxes-its about 30% percent cheaper back home. I think this place just got too greedy and its become to expensive...and for what? Its time to go, its been fun, but its just too expensive and not worth it! Thoughts anyone?