ek housing allowance for mortgage?

[eaglejet]

Hi Folks,

Is that possible to use the EK housing allowance towards the payment of a mortgage to buy an apartment or house in Dubai? Thanks

[mensaboy]

Yes.

Good luck on that one by the way. I have a place here in Dubai, that I rent out, yet there is no possibility of me moving out of company accomodations. If you haven't bought a place in the past, then you would be foolish, (in my opinion), to NOW buy a place and plan to live in it based on EK providing a supplement to cover the mortgage. It might appear on paper that the housing allowance is good, but once you factor in the hassle, the non-regulated charges, and the depreciation of value, then living outside of EK accomodations is not worth it at all.

And by hassle, I mean............... well too hard to explain sorry, but suffice to say, you will be amazed at what goes on here when it comes to consumer protection, or lack thereof.

If you want to make some money, I think there are still possibilities but not like there was 4 or 7 years ago. But in no way, should you be considering buying a place and living in it now with the idea that you are better off than living in EK company accomodations, with everything taken care of. Sure you take a risk coming here, considering that there is a wide disparity of suitable accomodations but generally speaking most new comers are going to DSO, and its pretty good. Its not for everyone, but if you have a family and kids, then I would bet that you would enjoy it.

If I could give anyone advice coming here.......... move into company accomodations...... do not take the furniture (or whatever its called) allowance and then after a couple of years make an informed decision.

Glad to see another American coming to this place, haha. Can't wait to fly with you and give you a hard time about GWB, lol. Don't hold my viewpoints against me please, as I won't hold it against you that your country has put an evil man in center stage on the world scene. I won't even mind if you take a swipe at me over a couple of pints. Politics are politics, but in my opinion you judge a person on their values and actions.

I truly hope your decision works out for you. Hope I was of help with your question.

[BigGeordie]

Mensa is correct, you can use the allowance to put towards a mortgage but what Emirates give you won't get you much of a mortgage on it's own- maybe a one bedroom or two bedroom apartment if you only have the minimum deposit. I would take the company accommodation for the first year (but supply your own furniture, makes it fell more like "home") and then decide. Much better than ending up with a flat you don't really want in an area you don't like because you rushed into a decision.

[BIKKERDENNAH]

I would have to agree with mensa on this one.

I bought a 4 bedroom villa 3 years ago and the price at that time was right and made sense. A 9500dhs mortgage over 20 years and a place that has over doubled in value!! Housing allowance now 11200 dhs per month for a captain. So the maths adds up. However to get anything near company accom standard now especially if you are entitled to a villa you would be looking at least 3 million dhs to get something comparable and if you have not got a substantial chunk of cash to slap down as a deposit the 10000 dhs fo allowance will be just a part payment to the mortgage which at the moment over 20 years with 15 percent down and financing all the premium or 50 percent of it, you will be facing mortgage payments of 16000 dhs + and on top of that approx 2000dhs per month utilities and another 1000 dhs per month in service/management charges lets not get into the HASSLE factor. capital return is still there for the next 2 to 4 years but NOTHING like it was 4 years ago.

BUT if you are single, you can snap up 2 bedroom apartments for a lot less and maybe get the budget down to the company allowance but keep in mind that there is now a glut of apartments on the market now that jumerah beach residence and the palm apartments are now complete so capital growth is not there in fact the prices are dropping slightly and rental yields are not as high as they were. On a positive note if you buy and use company allowance to pay for most of the mortgage it cannot be a bad thing!!

Spend a year in company accom have a good look and do your due diligence then decide if you want to buy,thats my advice. i waited two years to make a decision.:ok:

Hope this helps

[Ghostflyer]

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.