Renting in Qatar

Where to rent in Qatar

Source: PropertyFinder.qa

So your moving to Qatar, your dates are set, what next?  Choosing where to live in Qatar can be daunting, but mostly exciting.  The wonderful thing when you move away from the UK is you will find the apartments or villas are a lot larger than what you are used to in the UK - unless you live in Surrey and have acres of land with a 10-bedroom house! 

Personally I have moved from a 2-bed, one bath, small kitchen and living room apartment in Chelsea, London, to a much larger 2-bed, 1.5 bathroom, large kitchen and large living room, for much cheaper too!  

You can wave good bye to carpet mites and say hello to gleaming, cool marble tiled floors, dark wooden doors and accents and air-conditioning, which will be your best friend come summer time!  When you sign your work contract, you are usually offered a housing allowance (in some cases is not enough to pay all the rent), or your company will put you in company housing which will be in a compound if you have children, or an apartment if you don't.  Generally having children is a huge plus as you are given better allowances!  Here are a couple of places I know of and can speak about from personal experience.

The Pearl

The Pearl is a wonderful man-made island, it holds many apartments where most ex-pats go to live.  The Pearl is an island where you have no reason to leave.  Should you live in Porto Arabia, your tower will come with a swimming pool, gym, spa and in some cases, a private beach.  If not, certainly a resident's beach.

The Pearl has bars, shops, restaurants, supermarkets and a boat harbour housing some glorious boats!  Along the board-walk you will see smiling locals, well preened ex-pat wives and an abundance of palm trees.  It's the place to be, but of course this comes at a higher cost.  The above photo illustrates a typical set up in Porto Arabia, a high tower with large flats, every single on complete with a large balcony.  A large swimming pool, with plenty of sun loungers for ladies lucky enough not to have to work.

Positives:  You have everything you need in one place, you have cleaners onsite, dry cleaning services, water delivery services, property management and wonderful views. It's the place to be and be seen.

Negatives: The Pearl is still largely under construction, so if you are in a new building, be prepared to listen to construction all day long, for 6 days a week.  Rent is very high, a modest two bed in an older building will set you back around 12,000 Riyals a month.  If your housing allowance covers this, great!  But be aware that your rent is likely to increase at least 500 or 1,000 Riyals a year.  Upon leaving The Pearl, you hit roadworks that are likely to remain there for some time. Getting to the city entails many roundabouts, all of which have long traffic queues, prepare to spend 10-20 minutes crawling up to each roundabout. 

Renting in Doha

If however, your housing allowance does not allow  you to live on The Pearl, you can still get large 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom flat elsewhere, which will usually start from around 6,000 a month - yes, half the price!  Unfortunately it might mean you do not have a gym, pool and certainly not the luxury shops!  But you do have quick access to zip around the city, it's more developed so less roadworks and construction sites!  

Another reason not to live on The Pearl, is you might prefer to live on a compound with other ex-pats, and live in a stand-alone-villa, aka semi or detached house.  With this you might have your own pool or a large one to share in the compound.  Popular compounds are the Beverly Hills ones, they are also expensive, but very well maintained and have a supermarket, tennis courts, hair & beauty salon, gym and coffee bars.

You may wish to seek a more modest environment, with a smaller compound that has larger homes and one pool for all to share.  You can get a 5 bedroom - 3 bathroom, maid's room across 3 floors, with a drive and a garage for around 12,000 a month - the cost of a 2-bed flat on The Pearl!  These are located towards the Villaggio Mall.

I strongly advise contacting agents, a good place to start is propertyfinder.qa, there are some agents, who do not charge tenants a fee!  When you do move, it is very common to chose services apartments for a month or two until you are settled - a very good choice is you have children too.

How to rent in Doha, Qatar

For those of you who are not given company housing, or perhaps declined it there are a couple of things to note when renting in Qatar.

- Upon signing your housing contract for one year, you will hand over 12 post-dated cheques to pay for the rent.  In Qatar, that is considered safety for the landlord as your year paid for.  The Cheques will be post-dated, and deposited in the bank by the landlord or agent.  

- You must never, ever, ever allow a cheque to bounce.  This is a jail-worthy crime, so always make sure your cheques will be cleared without a problem  If your cheque bounces, your LL will be very quick to contact you, or visit you, and tell you that you have 'x' amount of time to fix the problem - usually by the next day. 

 

- Above your door, or next to your front door will be two metal plaques with numbers on, take a photo of them or note down the numbers and find your meters and record the numbers too.  (I was asked to take a photo of the plaques and meters, so I recommend you do this in the first place so you don't have a wasted trip when going to pay for your services. )  The two plaques will be for water & electricity, which will be paid in the same place, Karama. 

- Set up your tv, internet and home phone and you're ready to go!

Good luck :)