Living in Sharjah and Working in Dubai: The Money Side

Rent is lower in Sharjah than in most of Dubai. That is the reason people make the move, and it is a real saving. The question is how much of it survives the commute.

To answer it, put the rent saving on one side and the full cost of getting to work on the other. The commute side has more lines than people expect: fuel, tolls, parking, insurance, servicing, the car losing value, and the hours themselves. Net the two and you get one monthly number.

Start with the rent saving

Do not use averages. Find three listings in the Sharjah area you would actually live in, and three in the Dubai area you would otherwise choose, at the same size and standard. Take the middle of each. It is the same line by line method that settles Abu Dhabi against Dubai.

Then adjust for the things that ride along with rent:

• Agency and registration fees, which differ by emirate and by landlord
• Utility costs, which are billed by different authorities in each emirate
• The security deposit, spread across the year
• How many cheques the landlord accepts, since fewer instalments strain your cash flow even when the total is the same

The difference between the two adjusted annual figures, divided by twelve, is your monthly rent saving. That is the number the commute has to beat.

Now count the commute properly

This is where the estimate usually goes wrong, because people count fuel and stop.

Fuel. Work out your round trip distance, multiply by the number of working days in a month, and apply your car's real consumption. Fuel prices in the UAE are reviewed periodically, so use the current price rather than one you remember.

Tolls. Salik gates are charged per crossing, and the number of gates you pass depends entirely on your route. Count the gates on your actual route, both directions, times your working days. Check the current charge and any daily cap rules, since these have changed before and can change again.

Parking. Whether your workplace provides it, and what public parking costs near it, can add a meaningful monthly line.

Insurance. Higher annual mileage can affect your premium. Ask your insurer.

Servicing and tyres. A long daily commute means services come round more often, measured in months rather than years. Divide the annual servicing cost by twelve.

Depreciation. This is the line everyone leaves out and it is often the biggest. A car driven a long commute loses value faster than one driven locally. Take the price you paid, estimate what it will be worth when you sell, divide the gap by the number of months you will own it. How long you expect to stay feeds straight into that, which is the heart of buying or leasing a car here.

Add those six lines. That is your monthly commute cost.

The line with no price on it

Then there are the hours. A long daily drive on a congested route can take a large share of your waking week, and border crossings between emirates are the worst part of it at peak times.

You can put a rough value on this if you want to. Take your monthly salary, divide by the hours you work in a month, and multiply by the extra commuting hours. What lands in that salary depends on your contract, and free zone and mainland employment differ there in ways worth checking. That gives you a number, though most people find the honest reaction is not financial. It is whether they want those hours back.

Whatever you do with it, write the hours down next to the money. A decision made on money alone tends to get revisited within a year.

Netting it out

Rent saving minus commute cost equals your real monthly gain or loss. Three outcomes are common.

If the number is comfortably positive, the move works, and the remaining question is whether you can accept the time.

If it is close to zero, you are trading hours for nothing. That is the worst version, and it is more common than people assume once depreciation is included.

If it is negative, the cheaper rent is an illusion for your particular route and car.

Things that change the answer

• Public transport. If your route is served well enough to use buses or a mix of transport, most of the car lines disappear and the arithmetic changes completely.
• Car sharing. Splitting the drive with a colleague on the same route removes a share of fuel and tolls.
• Working from home. Even one or two days a week cuts the commute side proportionally, and that can flip a marginal decision.
• Where in Sharjah. The distance and the number of toll gates vary a lot between areas. Two households in the same emirate can get opposite answers.

Do the version with your own numbers

None of this works with averages, because the two biggest lines, rent and route, are specific to you. An afternoon with three listings, a map of your route and your car's real running costs will give you a firmer answer than any general comparison.