DUBAI, 7 February 2006 — Rocketing rents in the United Arab Emirates are forcing some of the Gulf state’s millions of Asian workers to sleep in their cars, a local newspaper reported yesterday.
The Gulf News said unmarried Asian men in Dubai were living in their cars after finding more conventional habitats beyond their financial reach.
“At first I found it a bit weird to spend the night in my car but now I am used to it. I have been living like this for five weeks now,” said Subhash Dholakia, who works in sales.
An oil-driven real estate boom is pushing rents higher in the UAE by up to 50 percent each year, with an average one bedroom apartment in Dubai costing around 56,000 dirhams ($15,250) annually. Other living costs such as schooling, food, utilities and leisure are also climbing sharply, while salaries rose just 6.5 percent on average in the year to August 2005.
The men pay 50 to 70 dirhams ($13.61 to $19.06) to tenants who let them use their bathrooms and ironing boards and provide luggage space.
Dholakia said he used to share a room in Al-Ghuasais district with a family but a notice from the landlord forced him to leave. He used to pay 750 dirhams a month as rent.
“I get up as early as 5 a.m. and make use of all the house facilities,” said Dilip Sen, an Indian secretary. “I then head for breakfast in a nearby cafeteria.”
He said many of his friends are on the waiting lists of tenants who sublet rooms or luggage spaces. But living rough in his car has enabled him to save a little money, Sen says. The men said they never parked in the same area twice, for fear of being rounded up by police.
It is illegal for residents to permanently live or sleep in their cars, a police officer, who did not want to be identified, said. “It is also inadvisable to sleep at night in a car owing to security reasons,” he added.
Foreign laborers, mainly from the Indian Subcontinent, make up around 85 percent of the United Arab Emirates’ 4 million population.
