House Hunt in Doha

Note: This is the experience of a expat Mufeed Ahmed trying to get a house in Qatar for QR6000 rials. I didn’t edit the original entry.

tonight, as i sign a new contract to shift to a newly rented place, i cant keep myslef away from sharing my past three week’s experience of ‘House Hunt’ in doha to find a ‘livable’ flat / villa within 6000 rials, it cost me a fortune of petrol and phone bill.

most of the things that appear in classifieds are just virtual and not real. when they say 2bedroom flat, you shouldnt be smart enough to think that it includes a hall/living. Most of them included just 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen. if it’s a part of Villa, you better be ready to go thru a passage half metere wide, tucking your head below the ACs of your neighbours and then find a brown door that leads to an asbestos shed!

Most of the partitioned villas are with just a 10 cms plywood partition in between, so that your neighbour has the previlage of hearing your conversations and you can listen to his TV programs, if not the thuds and bumps of his tiny tots on the common ‘wall’. to the question "is this a brand new building?", i received many answers as "medium"… later i found out that ‘medium’ inlcudes building that are even 10 years old.

I went to what’s written as american style open kitchen and found myself staring at a wash sink supported on two GI pipes, set up in the corner of the bedroom, leading to the bathroom. Poor America. But then you cant blame an asian agent who hasnt been to america for setting up such an pathetic ‘american’ kitchen.

What shocked me most was a ‘fully furnished ‘ one bedroom in madina khalifa with kitchen and bath. it was merely a room less spacious than my car, with a table ‘furnished’ with kettle sugar and teabags and a bed on the floor. Me being six feet tall really had a tough time getting thru the front door.

no offence, but for a moment, i even wished i could have been born as a kabayan because most of the rooms advertised were for them.

When i thought i had found a room in a decent flat in al sadd, it had three other bedrooms which were occupied by three others, which donot bother me as i was going to have the fourth bedroom. But my freedom to answer to nature’s call was mercilessly questioned when i saw a nicely printed paper with pictures of many clocks, with time and name written below each clock diagram… it said sam, sara, sally and steve has all different timings assigned for them to use the bathroom and any minutes extra is considered ‘over time’ and does require the permission of the next person! not suitable for me who is into advertising and might need extra minutes for creative ideas. my quest continued.

i came across arab agents who were NOT interested in telling you more about the flat as if they think some Q companies will take them all some day, I came across keralite agents who thought that 2 bedroom is too much for 2 people and suggested to take a single room, part of a collapsed villa and with neat carpet (they spent 300 rials on that to impress the customers) and even agents who advertised a villa very near to villagio and guided me seven KMs away form there.

i am not aware of the building laws of qatar but i found a lot of three bedroom flats with one bathroom! while most of the two bedrooms were empty, the 3 bedrooms in the same buildings werent available as they have been taken by real estate. some of the new buildings had rooms that wer even 2.5m x 2.5m. too small to decently accomodate a person. credit cruch might not have affected qatar but a ‘space-crunch’ has. in many new flats, the space was very very less. many flats just had 2 bedrooms without a hall/living and you enter the flat to a small space good enough to keep a shoe rack.

But after all, misleading ads/leads doesnt turn me down. If i earn money advertising products/companies which, ofcourse, arent as true as the ad says, then i feel my 3 weeks experience is just a tit for tat.

oops.. this looks too long. apologies