Accommodation in Dubai

A good source of information if you want to find accommodation, whether that be on a short-term or long term basis is www.expatriates.com. Once you have a place you can also use this to look for possible flatmates etc. In Dubai you tend to have to sign up for a year if you want to rent a place and you also have to pay the whole year up front, although most landlords will accommodate a few post-dated cheques so that you can pay in up to 4 installments. This still means finding a reasonavle chunk of money in advance as you also have to find a 5% deposit and 5% agency fee.