Financially, it depend how long you are planning to stay. If you bought now you would be behind the 8 ball on a monthly basis. Over a career, the picture might well look better. 30 years of housing allowance adds up to 4.3 million without any increases so with general inflation, it still has merit. Mind you 30 years is a hell of a long time, but you get the picture.
Most guys look at it in purely financial terms. You could take the view that you are buying a house and the company are paying half and that might be worth it to get the lifestyle you want. The best thing I did was to move out of company accom, not for financial reasons but for lifestyle. Having just seen the prices for tiny boxes in New York and Hong Kong, maybe in the medium term there are more profits to be made in Dubai.