Morag from Manama

‘DOWNSIZING’ is a word buzzing around the expat community in Bahrain at the moment. With many of us searching for lowerpriced villa rentals driven by the steady increase of the cost of living along with the loss of electric, water and fuel subsidies for expats throughout the kingdom.  Sadly, we all have friends who have lost their jobs and for the lucky ones, cost cutting has been put in place – no bonuses, frozen pension contributions, travel allowances slashed, salaries reduced and tightened expenses. Job security seems to be a thing of the past, lost in our generation and this instability is forcing us to reassess our expenditures. ‘Downsizing’ seems to be one way to clearly claw back some money during these uncertain economic times.
For now, there is a flurry of busy-ness in the Bahrain rental market and estate agents are inundated with clients in search of more affordable accommodation. Some want to ‘downsize’ but have unrealistic expectations - after all its hard to give up our high expat standards that we have become accustomed to! Or is it that we roiled with the good times too freely and now it’s difficult to adjust? Only yesterday, a friend working for a large international moving company here in Bahrain was telling me how they have only moved 40 new families into Bahrain this year whilst moving 180 families out! Yet, they are out the door with local moves due to the trend in expats ‘downsizing’. A sign of the times? Perhaps.