Recently, Bahrain was named the top expat destination in the Middle East by a recent survey. Ranked 17th most popular in the world for those seeking employment a new life overseas, it rated above the UAE (19), Oman (24), Kuwait (64), Qatar (54), and Saudi Arabia (61) out of a total of 64 countries analyzed. The survey ranks countries by different factors such as the quality of life, personal finance, working abroad and making friends.
“Looking more closely at the rankings in individual indices and subcategories, you can tell where Bahrain outperforms the other countries. For example, the UAE does much better in the Quality of Life Index, with place 21 as compared to Bahrain’s rank 47. However, Bahrain is ahead in the Family Life Index, where it ranks best out of all GCC states (19 out of 41), and especially in the Ease of Settling In Index, where it also comes first among the GCC countries (7 out of 64). It is probably the performance in those two indices that boosted Bahrain’s final result.
Respondents find it especially easy to get used to the local culture and settle down in Bahrain, to make new friends, and to get by without fluent Arabic language skills. The quality of education for expat children also did quite well.
Looking closer at job prospects, the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), which is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle East and based on a real -time review of tens of thousands of employer job opportunities, the survey found that Bahrain had one of the best performing job markets in the region.
Overall Bahrain has registered a 14 percent growth year-on-year in the number of jobs currently available online. The countries which are hiring the most continue to be KSA, and Egypt, with an increase of 32 percent and 38 percent respectively, in online recruitment activity, as compared to previous years. Bahrain is also one of the top performers for the current year, with an increase in online job postings of 27%.
Turning to the residential market, rents in Bahrain’s capital city increased slightly by 2.2 percent this year compared to the previous year. However, rental levels are expected to stabilize over the coming 12 months as a result, with less marked increases putting Bahrain on a par with other Gulf markets such as Dubai. Certain government policies are likely to contribute to flatter rental levels in 2016 and 2017, in particular new rules to limit rental uplifts to every two years as part of wider requirements to formally register all tenancy agreements across the commercial and residential sectors.
Landlords are expected to be restricted on imposing any rent increases on the agreed rate for two years from the start date of the tenancy, or the date of the last increase.
Job prospects have been increasing over the past months – oil slump aside – and property prices for expats both to own and rent are fair. On top of that, the schools offer high quality education, the local restaurant scene is blossoming, and the island has a bohemian grassroots arts scene like no other. Most importantly, for a home away from home, the expats and locals actually mingle here. From talented creative types to ambitious CEOs to young families – for people from across the rest of the world – Bahrain has a lot to offer.
