My Sharjah Rent: Dubai commuter finds Dh32,000 Sharjah home a bargain

Akhila Nambiar is among the many Dubai workers who live just over the border, but faces a lengthy drive each day

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  Akhila Nambiar shares a one-bedroom apartment in Sharjah's Al Nahda area with her mother, Seema. All pictures by Ruel Pableo for The National

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  The light and bright living area

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  The Kitchen space

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  The spacious living room

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  The bedroom at the apartment

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  The entrance to the home

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  The dining area

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  Akhila Nambiar is happy to be settled in Sharjah, despite facing a long daily Dubai commute

My Sharjah Rent takes you inside a reader's home to have a look at what they get for their money, how much they pay in rent and asks them what they like and don't like

Akhila Nambiar, 28, works in Dubai but has lived in Sharjah her entire life. The 28-year-old Indian, who works in the PR sector, has no plans to move anytime soon, not least because of the affordability of living in Sharjah compared with Dubai.

Watching so many people move from Dubai to Sharjah in recent months has made her even more certain she has made the right choice to stay where she is. Ms Nambiar pays Dh32,000 ($8,700) a year in rent for the one-bedroom apartment she shares with her mother.

She invited The National for a tour of her home to show us why it is so special to her.

Why did you choose to live here?

Sharjah has always been convenient for me, as I grew up here, but one of the main factors is still the cost of rent. We used to live in the Abu Shagara area and were paying a lot more. However, we moved here to Al Nahda a few years ago and not only is it cheaper, the commute time to Dubai is significantly reduced as well. Getting to and from work is so convenient, between public transport and the private bus companies.

It used to take me two hours to get home from work when I lived in Abu Shagara, now I can be home in just over one hour. It makes a huge difference to save up to an hour per journey. There are all kinds of supermarkets right here, like Lulu and Nesto, then you have so many beauty parlours, as well as doctors. Everything is super-close and there is a family feeling here in the community. There's a gym in the building and a wellness centre right underneath too.

How have you made the place feel like home?

Obviously, we furnished the apartment the way we like it. One of the main ways we did that was place plants around the house, my mum collects them as a hobby. We only really made small changes and didn't do anything to the physical structure of the property. But we did other things like hang our photos on the wall.

You've lived in Sharjah all your life, what changes have you noticed in that time?

Recently there has been a huge amount of people leaving Dubai to move to Sharjah, because of the cost of rent there. It's really evident during rush hour with the amount of traffic travelling back home from Dubai. There are apartment buildings here with signs outside saying there are no vacant flats available, demand is so high.

The cost of living is another factor for people choosing to live here. There's a difference in prices, especially in supermarkets, with groceries being cheaper on the whole here.

Do you have a good relationship with your neighbours?

Yes we do, actually. All the neighbours are super-friendly – and that's not just the people next door to us, it's the same across all the floors in the building.

Is there anything you would change about where you live if you could?

I am quite happy with the place that I am living in right now. The only thing I would change is not something that's in my hands, though. The level of traffic would be the main thing.