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28 March 2024

Revealed: Three things that can make UAE residents even happier

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

A majority of UAE residents are a happy lot. According to a survey by WhichSchoolAdvisor.com, 84 per cent of those living in the country are “happy to be here.”

Of those who are happy to be in the country, just under one quarter of the respondents (22.57 per cent), describe themselves as very happy and 61.52 per cent say they are happy.

These are people who wake up in the morning feeling good about being in the UAE and considering their high number it would be safe to say that the country sits pretty high on any international benchmark that measures such an index.

On the other hand, 14 per cent of those who took part in the survey say they are “not happy” and just 1.91 per cent say they are “very unhappy”.

But what is it that would make the residents even happier in the country?

When asked to identify the “one thing that worries you the most”, 28.7 per cent of the respondents opted to say it’s the rising rents in the country. So, affordable rents would be the biggest factor in making residents happier if their biggest worry was taken care of.

According to real estate services company Asteco, average annual apartment rents for new tenants in Dubai increased by 5 per cent over the three months to the end of March 2014, while villa rents rose 3 per cent, and this was on the back of significant rental hikes last year.

The capital also saw rent rises. According to CBRE, housing rents across Abu Dhabi rose by 10 per cent during the first quarter of this year.

In the face of rising rents, many companies are now increasing their house rent allowance to help employees. Recruitment firm Towers Watson says that 83 per cent of companies in the UAE planned to hike housing allowances paid to staff this year to offset the hike in rents.

Next on the list of worries, if taken care of, would add to the happiness quotient include job insecurity (21.2 per cent) and then “money - making ends meet”.

Recent figures released by Dubai Statistics Centre (DSC) show that Dubai’s inflation rate in April of this year climbed to the highest since August 2009, led by a rise in the cost of housing, the biggest component on the consumer price index.

“Prices were up 3 per cent in April from a year earlier. Gas and housing climbed 15 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively, raising the housing sub-index 4.9 per cent. Dubai’s inflation rate is rising as the economy is forecast to expand at the fastest rate since 2007,” said DSC.

The salaries of residents are expected to go up at an average of 5 per cent as predicted by many consultancies but if the hikes would be higher than the inflation rate, residents would see their disposal income, adding to their happiness.