Renting:
- Best option: rent from the landlord - no extra fees. It does not have to be a private, single property ouner - take a look at Al Emadi Enterprizes, the biggest real estate ouner and developer in the accomodation market. Or at least one of.
- If you need to do it with a realtor - try Homes2Rent. They advertize themselves as 'british manadget company'. Low prices, good servise, not so grate locations, but my information on them is about 3 years old. May be the situation changed...
Good luck and remember - there are a lot of places available now, it's a 'buyer's' market, so choose carefully, take you time.
Cheers!