Planning a relocation to Dubai sounds easy until you actually sit down and try to calculate everything. We started doing our calculations back in October 2024, and we finally moved to Dubai in February 2025.
And yes… it really took four months to figure out the real cost of moving to Dubai.
Why?
Because every website, every YouTube video, every “Dubai cost of living” post said something completely different. Nothing felt realistic and calculating the true Dubai relocation cost felt almost impossible.
But somehow, Ulaş’s calculations were very close to reality. So I want to share how we calculated our move, what we included, and what the real numbers looked like in the end. If you’re planning to relocate to Dubai, this might save you weeks of confusion. You can read here to learn how we took the first step to plan coming to Dubai.
Starting From Zero: What We Calculated Before Moving to Dubai
We literally started from the first step:
- flight tickets
- visa costs
- temporary accommodation (hotel/Airbnb until we found a home)
- long-term housing
- deposits and hidden payments
- monthly cost of living
- moving-related extras nobody warns you about
- personal items we want to get from Turkey before moving
Some things were easy: you can check flight prices, you can browse Property Finder or Bayut to get a general idea of rent prices.
But at first look / research you can’t see:
- how the houses actually look like
- hidden fees or extra payments that appear out of nowhere
- agency commissions & deposits
- real day-to-day cost of living
That’s where everything got messy.
What People Don’t Tell You
We found out pretty quickly that the “Dubai cost of living” you see online is only half of the story. Things we didn’t initially know we’d have to pay:
- DEWA setup fees (electricity & water)
- Cooling charges (which can be very high depending on the building)
- Gas setup charges (depends on the building)
- Ejari registration
- Emirates ID, medical tests, visa stamping (We had to pay for every step of Ulaş’s processes since his visa is dependant on me here in UAE.)
These weren’t written anywhere in a clear, step-by-step way. We had to dig everywhere for information. And even then, it wasn’t consistent.
Tools We Used
One of the websites we used for getting a rough idea was Numbeo’s Cost of Living.
It helped us understand the daily living expenses in Dubai, like groceries. But even that site wasn’t completely accurate and today, not all features are free anymore. Luckily, it was free when we were preparing our budget before February 2025.
So in the end, we basically built our own worst-case-scenario calculation and that’s what worked for us.
Why Our Own Calculation Was Better Than Anything Online
Because nothing online made sense to us. Everyone’s lifestyle is different, yes. But the numbers we saw didn’t reflect what we were expecting to spend.
So we prepared for:
- the highest possible rent we might face and can actually afford
- the highest possible bills
- extra surprise costs
And honestly, that saved us.
When we actually moved, our real expenses were extremely close to what we had planned for.
The Actual Data We Used
This is what we calculated back in February.
| February 2025 Calculations | ||
| To-do | Notes | Cost in AED |
| Hande Flight Ticket | Covered | |
| Ulaş Flight Ticket | One-way | 828,00 |
| Hande Dubai Visa | Covered | |
| Ulaş Dubai Visa | 558,00 | |
| Turkey Exit Fee | Total for 2 people | 124,00 |
| Temporary Accommodation (until finding a long term place) | First 15 days are covered. | 5000,00 |
| Housing Long Term | Upfront Cost | 15000,00 |
| Housing Long Term | First rent – plan max 3 cheques | 18000,00 |
| Ulaş Sponsorship Deposit | 3000,00 | |
| Internet Bill | 500,00 | |
| Phone Bill | 500,00 | |
| Other Bills | 400,00 | |
| Car | Upfront cost of buying a car | 15000,00 |
| Overall Monthly Cost of Living | ??? | |
and this is what we actually paid.
| What they actually cost | ||
| To-do | Notes | Cost in AED |
| Hande Flight Ticket | Covered | |
| Ulaş Flight Ticket | One-way | 828,00 |
| Hande Dubai Visa | Covered | |
| Ulaş Dubai Visa | 558,00 | |
| Turkey Exit Fee | Total for 2 people | 124,00 |
| Temporary Accommodation (until finding a long term place) | After the initial 15 days, we had to continue staying in the same place. Monthly rent+all bills included | 7.500,00 |
| Housing Long Term | Upfront Cost (Deposit (%10) + Agency fee) | 10.500,00 |
| Housing Long Term | First rent – plan max 3 cheques | 16.250,00 |
| Ulaş Sponsorship Deposit | And all the fees about Emirates ID | 3.379,74 |
| Internet Bill | 400,00 | |
| Phone Bill | Total for 2 people | 500,00 |
| DEWA | Some part of it depends on your yearly rent | 470,00 |
| Gas | Every 3 months | 120,00 |
| AC | Some places include this to rent. Unfortunately ours don’t. | 260,00 |
| Car | Upfront cost of buying a car | 15.800,00 |
| Overall Monthly Cost of Living | 15.000,00 | |
| All the Extras we didn’t even calculate | ||
| Visa extension | Ulaş’s visa process wasn’t completed in time, so we had to extend the visa | 1.440,00 |
| Drivers License for UAE | Eye test + changing from TR to UAE license | 985,00 |
| Ejari registration | 222,75 | |
| DEWA Deposit | 2.130,00 | |
| Gas Deposit | 1.025,00 | |
| AC Deposit | 695,80 | |
This transparency is exactly what we needed when we were researching. So now we’re creating it for others who are preparing to move to Dubai.
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