The cost of short-term rentals in Qatar is rising before the World Cup, with one landlord demanding $60,000 a month for a three-bedroom villa.
One-bedroom apartments on Pearl Island in Doha are being advertised at more than $1,000 a night during the tournament, which begins on November 21.
Consulting group ValuStrat says apartments on the island are being rented for an average of $2,580 a month, up from $2,300 in the fourth quarter of last year. A spacious three-bedroom villa more than 120 kilometres from central Doha has been advertised on Airbnb for $60,000 a month. The property comes with a private pool and can accommodate up to 10 guests.
Properties for an entire year are being advertised for $1 million on Airbnb and Booking.com.
Some landlords are pushing up prices, with more than 1.7 million visitors expected to visit the country for the tournament. This year, some owners have asked tenants for a two-year lease contract instead of one.
One expatriate resident, 48, said he chose to rent out his three-bedroom villa for the first time during the Fifa World Cup to enjoy a quiet month in the UAE.
An Airbnb superhost — a term for hosts who offer their guests outstanding services — who asked not to be named, said he was asking a premium price for his serviced studio apartment.
The rates on Airbnb were much higher than normal but that is because of the World Cup rush, he said.
With Fifa reserving thousands of rooms in hotels and residences for players and staff, demand has surged in the past few months.
In the first quarter of the year, rents rose by 3.3 per cent, while average prices on the Pearl increased by 19 per cent.
Rush for accommodation
Officials and landlords in Qatar, a small country with an 88 per cent expatriate population and low rates of home ownership, have been scrambling to accommodate the expected surge of football fans.
Housing was the second-biggest contributor to an inflation rate of 5.4 per cent in June.
A 34-year-old Belgian mother who lives in a hotel apartment said she was choosing to leave for a month when her annual contract expires at the end of this month.
“My 2-year-old and I will go to Greece and visit family. We plan to look for new accommodation come December,” she said.
Her husband, who works in Doha, will stay with a friend in the meantime.
For others, the decision to vacate their apartments or travel aboard during the World Cup was not easy.
Families who have children enrolled in schools have had to pay increased rent.
“I was given a two-week notice to consider a 10 per cent increase and when I reluctantly agreed, the landlord withdrew the offer and gave me a month to move out,” said one resident who has lived in Doha for almost two decades.
He said he had put furniture for his one-bedroom apartment and personal belongings into storage until he works out his next move.
“Currently, I plan to stay with a friend and look for an apartment in January, when the World Cup mayhem has calmed down a bit,” he said.
Match ticket holders have been told they could find a place to stay through the Qatar Accommodation Agency website. A ticket application number is required to complete a booking.
Tents and cabins are available in fan villages, such as in Zafaran outside Lusail, where prices start from $207 a night.
The first weekend of the World Cup is sold out but other dates are still available.
To ease the pressure on hotels, Qatar is building temporary accommodation on Doha’s outskirts. Cruise ships anchored off the coast will also offer rooms for football fans.
Many are choosing to stay elsewhere in the region and fly in for games, although more new hotels are due to open next month, only weeks before the start of the tournament.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
It
Director: Andres Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Three stars
What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
How to increase your savings
- Have a plan for your savings.
- Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
- Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
- It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings.
- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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Profile of RentSher
Started: October 2015 in India, November 2016 in UAE
Founders: Harsh Dhand; Vaibhav and Purvashi Doshi
Based: Bangalore, India and Dubai, UAE
Sector: Online rental marketplace
Size: 40 employees
Investment: $2 million
