My rent in Dubai is up 15% but I still won't move back to the UK

Louay Al-Samarrai left the UK for Dubai in 1989 , aged 22, without much of a plan beyond escaping a dull job selling life insurance over the phone.

He landed a £1,000 a month job as a hotel manager – the equivalent of an annual salary of around £31,000 in 2025 – and went between flat shares and sofa surfing.

Some 36 years on, and as much as Dubai has changed, so has Mr Al-Samarrai’s life. Living in a country with no personal income tax and a 9 per cent business tax has paid off, with Mr Al-Samarrai starting his own business in 2003, technology marketing consultancy Active Digital Marketing and Communications.

Yet despite benefiting from such favourable financial conditions, Mr Al-Samarrai, now 58, is starting to feel the pinch as costs rise. Rent on his four bedroom house, for examp