We lived in Dubai before moving to Hong Kong 4 years ago. We are seriously considering a move back there in 2022 or early 2023.
There are upsides and downsides to it as with every place so it will just come down to personal preference. For me, definitely not in order and just stuff that popped into my head:
Good Things
- sunshine - fairly consistent year round sunshine and plenty of beaches and hotel pools
- tax free
- career opportunities - if you find a good company you can get some really good international exposure and probably more responsibility than back home
- lifestyle - if you have a good salary you can live in a villa, hire a maid, send your children to good schools, drive a nice car etc etc
- proximity to home - for us this is the U.K. and during Covid it has really started to bother us how far away we are (and obviously the different approach to quarantine etc)
- convenience - this is probably linked to lifestyle but Dubai is small and everything is done to make for an easy life eg food delivery, valet parking. I’m not saying this isn’t the case in other places
- pace of life - for me this is a big one, it’s less hectic than HK and I think more places to relax without leaving the UAE (if you include the other emirates)
Bad Things
- the heat in summer is next level to the extent that you won’t want to go outside
- there are some hidden taxes that do add to the costs (although this is not equivalent to salaries tax elsewhere)
- hierarchy - emiratis are at the top of the tree closely followed by white expats, there is definitely racism at play
- the contrast between rich and poor is stark and pretty visible.
- I think HK has a much better range of nice restaurants
- can be full of pretentious people trying to make a quick buck but you can also find ways to avoid them
- it’s very transient so whilst you’ll find people who have been there a long time you’ll also see lots of people come and go
I didn’t put cost of living in either list because I think it depends on where you’re coming from, what you’re used to and what your expectations are. I will say that you can get a much larger living space for much less than in Hong Kong. Things like eating out, supermarket shopping etc are for me comparable to HK because I prefer western food but obviously a lot more expensive than someone who is mainly eating a local diet.
Hope that helps!