No choice but to move

Mahmoud Akhtar is one of the many people in Dubai struggling to find an affordable place to live.

Akhtar is a civil engineer from India who earns Dh8,000 a month. He lives with his wife and three-month-old son in a villa in Rashidiya shared with his sister and her family, which includes her, her 10-year-old daughter and her husband, who earns Dh15,000 a month.

The two families each pay half of the Dh60,000 annual rent. The two families received an order to vacate the villa as under the ban on sharing accommodation.

"They didn't give us much time," he said.

For his family, and families in a similar situation, there is no option but to leave the villa.

"We don't have a choice, we have to leave, because if we don't, electricity and water would be disconnected. It has been done to people in nearby villas," he said.

Akhtar doesn't think that it would be possible to find another villa within the same cost as the one he is living in.

"Rent is becoming very expensive in Dubai. If my family and I leave this villa, I don't think it would be possible to find another affordable one in Dubai," Akhtar said.

"We are going to look for a cheaper apartment in Sharjah or Ajman, the rent is much more affordable there," he said. According to him, many of the families who are forced to leave shared villas are doing the same thing.

Akhtar said: "Many of these families have no option but to move to Sharjah or Ajman, even if it means living far away from work."