- Dubai has changed a
lot in the past 50 years. It essentially went from desert to one of the most futuristic
cities on the planet. Hello, Pepper. - As-salamu alaykum, hi, I am Pepper. - Naturally when you think of Dubai you automatically associate it with money. We're in the world's only
seven-star hotel right now. Legend has it that
everything in this hotel that looks gold is made of real gold. But how much does it
cost to live in Dubai? (typing) (bell dings) Whenever I see these kinds of videos, I feel like everyone leaves
out the most interesting bit which is the actual
money, the actual numbers. So I'm going to be doing my best to kind of break this down
with numerical figures. Before we get into the actual expenses, there's two things that I wanna discuss. Number one is that there's
a 0% income tax in Dubai, which means if you're
offered $3,000 a month you get $3,000 a month. (celebratory music) Number two is that in Dubai, it's mandatory for your employer
to cover your healthcare. So I know that for example in the States it's super crazy right now. Healthcare can be super expensive. Here's healthcare isn't
free, but it's kinda free. Basically, you can't get a job if you don't have your healthcare covered. Having said that, I have a $50 per month international health insurance
back in Spain just in case. Obviously, in Dubai there's
a very wide range of income. I'm gonna be trying to explain the cost for a younger person, someone
that's somewhat on a budget. Someone that represents
the average in Europe. I'm also not gonna go
into visas and flights because everywhere around the world is gonna be completely different, but I do know that for Europeans it's particularly easier
than for, let's say, Americans or South
Americans to get into Dubai. In case you're wondering,
if you're European you have a free three-month
tourist visa to Dubai. You can literally go to
Dubai for 90 days for free. The most expensive part
of Dubai is accommodation. Bro, what do you think is, like, the cheapest rent for something decent. - I would say that mainly
what you're going to spend is gonna be around $750, and that will be for a
shared accommodation. - At the very least, if you
share a flat with someone, accommodation is gonna cost
you around $750 per month. If you want your own flat,
that number immediately goes up to around $1,400
to maybe $2,000 on average. It's also important to know that if you do have your own flat here, they ask for three to four
months in advance every time. You pay every three months. The rent here may be really
expensive but in general you get some pretty good views and
facilities in each tower. These are the views from my balcony. Not bad. Most towers do come with a gym and a pool on the rooftop,
or somewhere in between. Back in London, I was paying around $1,000 per month for a room,
and it was pretty ghetto. In terms of food, I think
it's pretty expensive here. A lot of common goods are imported so even an avocado cost me around $4 here. ♫ Hell no to the no no no - Back in Spain, I was paying
60 cents for an avocado. There's also this bizarre situation with, like, water here, the local water. If you go to a restaurant
and ask for water, there's a good chance that
they're gonna bring you some sort of elegant imported
water, which costs a fortune. So we're getting the Agua
Toscana Panna Italiana, $9. The water costs just as
much as... bro! (laughs) I've had to the learn the hard way to just ask for local
water from the beginning. Local water will cost you a dollar, special water will cost you $10. (slurps water) For me, water's just water. I don't give a shit if it's from Italy or from Spain or from
the mountains of France, I just want water. I think that $1 for water
is enough at a restaurant. Just bear in mind, if
you're going to Dubai, always ask for local water, unless you really like your
Toscana water or something. Restaurant prices are, I would say, closer to American prices
where you will spend, on average, $7 to $10 per meal. All of this, water, mango juice, everything together costs around $8. To live comfortably (blows
air out through lips) minimum, I'd say $300. Average, I would say $500 per month, and it's fairly easy to get carried away and go into the $700 to $800 range. Transport here, at least in my opinion, is surprisingly cheaper than
what I expected it to be. Buying a car and gas
here is extremely cheap. For example, how much does it cost you to fill up your Range Rover? - It's gonna cost me around $25. - And in my case, it's only $15. I just recently bought a 2014
Mitsubishi for around $5,500. There's such a high turnover
with the vehicles in Dubai that what ends up happening is that the price in general just goes down. If you buy a car, that's... Yeah, there's no way of
putting this into numbers. But you will spend a lot less here then you would in other
countries for buying a car. A short to medium taxi ride will set you back around $10. And a simple one-way
metro ticket across Dubai will set you back around
one-and-a-half to $2. So how much do you normally
spend on a short taxi ride here? - You would pay around $10
max for a 20 minutes ride. - If you're using public transport, I would say that per month
you'll be spending around $100. Social life here is pretty
expensive in my opinion. So in Barcelona, just about
every night club is free and most people drink on
the beach or on the streets. Here, that's obviously not the case. You can't really drink on the streets. (laughs) Yeah, not a good idea. But you can go to nightclubs
or brunches, hotels. The prices of beer here are alarming. When I lived in Finland, I
could not believe my eyes when I saw that people were
charging $6 for a beer. And then I moved to Dubai. (boy laughs, then cries) Obviously where you go for a beer will determine how much
you're paying for it. Alright, so we just went to
the 123rd floor for a beer. We're at the top of Burj Khalifa right now so here it's, like, $15 to $20 and that right there is a $50 mocktail. No, there's not even any alcohol in it. Maybe on a two-for-one deal
you'll get a beer for $5 but definitely, on average, you'll pay around $10 for a beer. What do you think, like, the average price for a beer is in Dubai, like maybe... - $10. - $10, yeah. Obviously, social life doesn't
only mean drinking beers but I feel like beer is, like, an international symbol of currency. If you're looking for, like,
a mojito or a cocktail... Being an alcoholic here
is pretty expensive. I personally think that brunches are somewhat worth the
money here in Dubai. You pay around $50 to
$100 and it's all food, all drinks included for most of the day. So just doing some quick math, if you go drinking with friends or you go to a bar with
friends once per week, you buy four beers at $10. That $40 per week on beer times four. So you do that for four
weeks in one month. 40 times four, $160, damn. 40 times four, $160 on just
casual drinking with friends. And let's say you go to one or two brunches priced at $50. $260 on social life here per month. - [Woman] They ask you how you are and you just have to say that you're fine. When you're not really fine. You just can't get into it because they would never understand. - Obviously, this is one side
that you can completely avoid. You can just meet up with friends, maybe play some video games. You don't really have to go out drinking. But if you are interested in going out to like the night scene here, it will set you back quite a bit. Once again, bear in mind,
that I making these numbers for an average younger European. Depending on what kinda
group you hang out with, you can expect to spend a
lot more per night here. So just to keep things simple, let's say that social life here will cost you $100 to $300 per month. And then probably just another
$50 of unexpected activity. Also, depending on who you hang out with, these $50 of unexpected
activity can also go way up. So, in total, we're looking
at around $310 per month. I went from Spain, paying $1 per beer to Dubai, paying $10 per beer. - Hello? - There are also a ton
of different activities to do in Dubai, from
go-carting to laser tag. There's a million different
things that you can do. And a lot of different
ways to spend your money. In general, these kinds of activities do tend to be more expensive. For example, like sky diving here I think costs you like $400 to $500. Back in Spain it's $90. Then again, I can't compare Spain's economy with Dubai's economy. So taking in all the areas that I covered, I would say that on the cheap, Dubai can cost you $1,350. If you wanna live comfortably in terms of similar standards
of how you were living back in the States or in Europe, I would say that can cost
you around $2,200 per month. But as I said previously,
that 0% income tax really does make a difference. I was talking with a friend
from New York the other day. He told me that Manhattan and
Dubai are similarly expensive. But in Manhattan it's easier
to get things for cheap. Obviously there's a ton of
smaller areas that I could cover but I'm just talking
about the basic backbone of your expenses in another country. Dubai is, by far, the most expensive place that I've ever lived in. But I also have to say that the quality of life here
is much, much higher. Crime rate is essentially 0%. I have to fact check that actually. Let's actually fact check this. (elegant music) I want a percentage, I'm
not getting any percentages. It looks like I am not going to be able to get a percentage right now. But for you guys to have an idea, if you leave an iPhone on a bench in the middle of the street and you leave for three hours, there's a solid chance that when you come back three hours later that phone is still there on the bench. Nobody will take it. A lot of people here
park their motorcycles with the helmet on top of the mirror, not locked or anything. They go shopping and do
what they need to do, come back an hour later and
the helmet is still there. In Spain, if you leave your helmet unattended for more than 15 seconds, there's a good chance that it's gone. (speaks in foreign language) Anyways, I'm starting to go into a completely different direction from the actual cost of Dubai. Those were the general numbers. I'll put 'em on the screen once again. If I miss anything, let me know. Leave a question in the
comment section below if you have any questions
that I didn't go over and do not forget to subscribe. (elegant music)
