What do housing terms mean?
I am not posting a classified, I just want to know if there is a link to help me understand the housing classifieds? I do not want a shared anything, I don't really understand what is a villa, etc. is it a single house or like a townhome? and also when it refers to something specific (nationality etc) does this mean shared?? Are there rental agencies there and if so what is the usual fees?
Dear Amal,
My name is Craig, I am MD of Mirage Properties here in Qatar. We are a real estate agent established for 7 years, offering properties in Qatar both for sale and lease.
There are a number of rental agencies here, some good, some not so good and also alot of owners leasing direct. Many of the agencies here charge a fee to find you property, anything from 1-2 weeks rent equivalent. We at Mirage do not charge as we earn our commission from the landlords.
Take a look at our website mirageproperty.com for an idea of what's out there and, more importantly, what it's going to cost you as many sites do not have pricing on them.
For clarification you have 3 basic housing types here:
Apartments, Stand Alone Villas & Compound Villas, the first being self explanatory.
Stand Alone villas are effectively houses (either detached or semi detached) standing in their own walled grounds, usually located in residential areas.
Compound Villas are houses located in gated communities, usually with shared facilities such as Pools, Gyms, Shops, club houses etc, the bigger the compound the more facilities normally offered. Compounds vary in size from as small as a 10 villa compound upto 3-400 villas with the average being around 40-100 villas.
The sharing you see mentioned could be either apartment shares, room shares or even bed shares, hence the Nationality as most prefer to share with people from same background especially room & bed shares.
The other thing you will come across is:
U/F: Unfurnished which is effectively an apartmen or villa with no appliances or even A/C's and possibly not even kitchen cabinets or sink etc.
S/F: Semi furnished which is kitchen appliances and can be with or without A/C's.
F/F: Fully furnished is everything included such as furniture, A/C,s, TV & DVD player. Some landlords also include kitchen utensils and linen.
You may also see for example: 2 bed with hall (hall is a living area) or 2HBK (2 bed, Hall, Bathroom, Kitchen) or 2 bed with Majlis (again a living area) or in larger properties Majlis is an additional living area.
I hope that helps clarify a few things.
Kind regards
Craig at Mirage
oh and about how long does it take to find a decent place? could we do it in a week or it takes months normally?