When you’re working abroad, finding the appropriate accommodation becomes a priority. You wonder about things such as the best neighborhood to be based in, the cheapest places to live, and the centrality or otherwise of the various options available to you. It’s often best to live fairly close to your workplace in an unfamiliar city, for example. Here we provide a few basic tips to get you thinking along the right lines.
First, relocate
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best advice for a beginner is to get to the destination first and then start thinking about accommodation. Take a temporary room in a hostel or something similar so you have time to familiarise yourself with the region or city. Get a feel for the public transport, which will help you decide whether a commute to work is feasible, and find out which suburbs are serviced better than others.
Use the search tools
Looking for accommodation in foreign parts will have many similarities to searching for it back home. Social media can be very helpful, and there are always chat rooms devoted to the issues faced by groups of ex-pats in just about every country imaginable. The members will be delighted to share their experiences and tips, and there will probably also be members advertising their apartments or able to point you to useful and trustworthy contacts.
Do the homework
Plenty of research before you go will certainly help if only to get some idea of the accommodation issues you may face on arrival. In some countries, for example, knowledge of the local language may be needed in connection with the forms you’ll need to fill in, and here again, the various social media and other internet resources can prove extremely useful.
Real estate companies
If you’re going to be working in the Middle East, Fahad Al Rajaan has an extensive real estate portfolio, with associates in Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt. The Kuwait Real Estate Investment Consortium has a wholly owned subsidiary in the UK and can be a useful contact for finding accommodation in the Gulf region.
House sharing
Everyone likes to have his or her own space, but when you’re moving abroad for work, you may find that house sharing is a particularly attractive option. You will often find that for less rent you can live in a better area of the city and in a better house or apartment if you’re prepared to share. House sharing is also a great way to get to make new friends in a strange and perhaps challenging new environment. Just remember to check out exactly who lives in the property before you sign the documents, so you know what you’re taking on.
Working abroad can be a challenge in so many ways and an important prerequisite for making a success of it is to have good accommodation to come back to in the evenings. Plan a little, use some common sense, and in any city, you’ll be able to find something that suits you and your personal circumstances.