If you are not familiar yet with Ras Al Khaimah you should check first the blog on why I lied about moving to Dubai. Honestly this emirate is not popular yet, but I hope this fact will change soon once the integrated gaming resort (including the highly anticipated first casino in the UAE) opens in 2027, which will be located in one of Ras Al Khaimah’s resort area Al Marjan Island overlooking the Arabian Gulf and Hajar Mountains.
The hype is on the rise when we moved in. Obviously this is such an interesting time because every one is excited with the new development. For years Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been overshadowing the rest of the emirates as the UAE most popular tourist destinations. But this year onwards, Ras Al Khaimah is finally popping out of the bubble to place itself in the global map as one of the destinations to go to.
Now, though the excitement of moving abroad especially to the UAE can easily take your focus away from what is important I managed to stay on track with the two things needed to settle before our big move: School and Housing. The process of scouting those two started one year prior.
Choosing which one I have to find first, the house or the school, is like trying to decide which one comes first between the egg and the chicken.
However the correct answer the one that make sense the most, which is the school.
You see, in Indonesia I used to be my kids’ dedicated driver. I have been driving them to and from the school. They have also started to use the online bike ride (Grab/Gojek – like Uber or Lyft). But in Ras Al Khaimah they are going to use the school bus because I don’t have a driving license (yet) and there is no public ride like in Indonesia.
With that in mind, we decided that we needed to fix the school first so then we could start searching for the housing focusing on the nearby location and consecutively were able to estimate the yearly bus fare for our budget because the fare is based on kilometers distance between the school and the house.
There are two sites that we used in finding the right house: propertyfinder.com and dubizzle.com. Since Jimmy has been already in Ras Al Khaimah at the time, I navigated the search from Indonesia. Came up with couple of options and let him talk with the agent to arrange survey visit.
We got our housing allowance in lump sum so we have the liberty to decide where we want to live as well as what type of accomodation we want to rent.
After carefully searching for months we finally settled for a three-story compound villa in the city. Quite far from the resort area, or the so-called expat area. But I like it. It’s clean, presentable, comfy and not really secluded. The location is also strategic because it is close by to the kids school, the market for our groceries and only 20 minutes drive to Jimmy’s work place.
We’ve got pretty good price for an unfurnished 3+1 bedroom villa with 3 bathrooms and a roof top. I am so glad we took our time and were so patiently looking for the right one. The price of rent in Ras Al Khaimah is not yet inclusive of the municipality tenancy registration fee (AED 25 and 5% of yearly lease) and agent fee. So if you are currently looking for one, don’t forget to add all these fees in your budget. Also, if you are a newly relocating abroad family like us, calculate your budget wisely on furnitures and kitchen appliances, because it is definitely NOT cheap (unless you want to resource some used items, it may save you some money).
Few months in now. We are still in budget recovery for making our home homey. But I would say that it is worth every penny.
PS: Let’s connect on the other side too!
Shelorina’s Corner 
Leave a reply to Fanny_dcatqueen Cancel reply