Looking at moving to Dubai and continuing a teaching career requires careful thought and lots of planning. Questions you have or decisions about salary, school & where you’ll be living are all normal, and essential to ask yourself & future employer.
Dubai is a popular place to visit and teach with schools providing different salary package and experiences. Prices in the city vary greatly for apartment & house rentals on long term leases with teachers requiring deciding how much to spend on living expenses compared to convince & saving.
International school accommodation in Dubai for overseas hired teachers varies by school, although normally single teachers receive an apartment alone, and families either get a 2-3 bedroom villa or apartment in a salary package. Schools also offer an accommodation allowance if a teacher choices to find they’re own.
There’s a few schools in Dubai that provide shared accommodation only, and locally hired employees receive no living cost assistance.
School accommodation for Dubai teachers
When you accept a contract to teach at school and arrive in the country you as a foreign teacher get accommodation in Dubai provided as a benefit with utilities paid in addition to you’re basic salary.
Head teacher and senior management normally receive better and separate school accommodation than classroom teachers. They’ll get offered an apartment if single, villa as with family or a generous housing allowance to rent a place of their own in Dubai.
4 teacher accommodation options the school has
- Living on campus with housing blocks for teachers & family or the school owns houses & apartments in Dubai. Some of the larger school groups do own their own buildings where class teachers are housed.
- There’s the advantage you’re not dealing with a private landlord, although disadvantages are its restricted access, meaning no visitors, and no pool or gym.
- Supplied apartment or house off campus. The school allocates you a place to live they have chosen in an apartment block with other teachers. Majority of the time the place is within walking distance and is convenient for you.
- Advantage for teachers is you’re living independently away from the school you can invite friends over. Disadvantages are you’ll be dealing with a private landlord, and will require traveling to work each day.
- Find your own housing with an allowance. Here the school gives you money as parts of you’re salary package so to find housing yourself. Benefit is you choose where you live in Dubai, type of housing, style and amenities. Disadvantages include finding & negotiating a place & lease, post dated cheques, not secure tenancy, and rental deposit payable.
- No allowance for housing. Should you decide to move schools while living in the city or visit Dubai, and then apply for a teaching job a school might not provide housing too you.
Do teachers get free accommodation in Dubai?
All foreign teachers that sign an international recruitment contract whereby you’re recruited from UK, Canada, Australia, and USA will be given free school teacher accommodation as part of a salary package & benefits.
Each school decides to offer single in most cases, shared apartment or an allowance.
Locally hired teachers in Dubai don’t receive school accommodation or apartment/house allowance.
Accommodation given to teachers varies by school
Accepting a teaching job in Dubai with one of the many individual international schools, or if their part of the same ownership group means differences in type, standard and distance away will be apparent.
A teacher will have a one bedroom apartment to themselves, which is very typical of what international school educators should expect in 2023.
Previous years Gems teacher accommodation Dubai for example an overseas teacher from USA/U was allocated “individual fully furnished accommodation” that’s modern, furnished with all basic white goods & appliances, maybe sae this year.
The place will be ready for you to move in when relocating to Dubai to teach, and will be within easy access to the school with facilities that could include pool & gym.
Gems staff accommodation for families with children will receive 2-3 bedroom housing spacious enough for children to sleep and play, though housing depends on family size.
A similar good school is King Dubai where teachers are provided with individual non shared private rented apartments or in condo buildings. Kings school teachers in Dubai have school housing with amenities such as a pool, building security, gym and car parking.
Kings staff housing is conveniently located close to public transport, such as Dubai Metro in central located areas within easy reach of the teacher’s school, shops, entertainment, transport and amenities.
As parking for a car is not always possible, a good idea is or find out if their enough spaces, or allocated parking at the school offered housing.
Shared school teacher housing offered
Some schools don’t have the budget to offer a teacher their own individual housing and only offer shared apartment accommodation with one or two other teachers.
This is not a normal offering for Dubai schools, although they’ll try to cut costs if you’re employed by a school with a lower operating budget.
Housing accommodation furnishings
The apartment or family house you’re allocated by a school usually is fairly basic with all essential items included. Depending on your requirements to make your new home more comfortable you’ll require to purchase some items yourself when you move in.
Furniture & utensils included in school housing?
- Double bed with pillows, one set of sheets.
- Towels.
- Bed side table, wardrobe.
- Sofa, chairs & coffee table.
- Television.
- Cooker with gas bottle.
- Pots, pans & cooking utensils, kettle.
- Plates, cups, glasses and cutlery.
- Air conditioning units in the bedroom and lounge.
- Fridge freezer, washing machine.
- Shower, toilet and sink.
- Internet ready (Not all).
- Water & electricity utilities paid.
Moving in you require
- Toiletries.
- Extra sheets, pillows and bedding for your own comfort
- Drying stand
- Additional towels
- More storage space, if required
- Mop & bucket and cleaning materials
- 2-3 extensions cables
- Universal adapter plugs
Location of school housing or offsite apartment
As schools start early at 07.00 in Dubai an important factor is how far you’re house or an apartment accommodation is to the school. Think about the daily commute & availability of public transport to the schools city location if it runs, convenience, especially travel time taken.
A benefit of living on school grounds or owned property is not traveling, meaning no busy traffic at peak times, no car required, cutting down costs.
Offsite apartment or villa, townhouse supplied to you by the school will mean, in the majority of case it’s close to the school, walking distance or short public transport ride on a bus or Dubai Metro Rail.
When choosing your own living accommodation always think about transportation means and accessibility at different times of day, all days per week. Good if you have a car, although you require waiting a few weeks until you’re a Dubai resident to legally drive. You have a short time to drive when first arriving in the country then a local license is required to drive.
During your interview ask if teachers can park a car at the school, you don’t want to try finding a parking space each morning.
Dubai School teacher accommodation allowance
Should your Dubai school not have staff accommodation or you choose to find your own you’ll be given an annual payment for an apartment or house that’s part of a teacher salary package. How much housing allowance do teachers get in Dubai?
International schools provide new and existing teachers from 30,000 AED to 120,000 AED per annum in 2022 as an accommodation allowance if they opt to find their own housing in Dubai.
The amount varies by every school, although good and top schools in Dubai will provide their school teachers money to cover the full rental cost of a reasonable standard apartment or house in a modest part of the city.
Each school will have a set amount of allowance they’ll give where single teachers receive less than a teacher with a family, as they’ll require a larger living space.
65,000-80,000 AED per year in 2022 living costs allowance given to you will cover a reasonable standard apartment or condo building rent with security, swimming pool and gymnasium, fairly close to your school.
Good schools in Dubai you’ll have a little negotiation room for a larger allowance if you’re a stem class teacher, long standing employee or senior management.
New teachers don’t have an option to haggle for more living expenses as theirs always alternative employees and a limited school budget.
Finding a place to rent
Finding your own accommodation you’ll require paying a condo, apartment or house service fee each month in addition to the rental price that’s not paid with school supplied housing. The fee covers security, maintenance repair & replacements and gardening,
Property Finder is useful and Dubizzle for property search in Dubai.
A cautionary reminder that Dubai laws prohibit co-habiting of non married male & females if people aren’t related. Should you wish to cut costs and share with another teacher then male/male or female/female is your only choices.