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Hello and welcome to Bahrain.

There is no IKEA in Bahrain but there is in Saudi Arabia. However you would need an invitation to cross the border.

I haven't seen any IKEA-class furniture shop in Bahrain but again I haven't been in the market for it.

Despite you are going to Ben here for 3 years, my personal recommendation would be getting a furnished place. It is less stressful and you won't have to worry about selling them all once you decide to leave the country.

Yeah, I think you may be right - it seems there are more places for rent that are unfurnished or semi furnished though. It would be a pain trying to buy furniture on top of everything else that's going on when you move to a new country.

Hi

Ikea in Saudi won't be a problem to "top up" your furnished accomodation as your husband will be working there.

There are lots of villa's which are furnished at very reasonable prices. At the moment we are on a compound of 4 villa's. Only 2 are taken and the place is huge. The prices are very cheap and all inclusive too which is a bonus.

Home in Bahrain Mall has a fantastic range of furniture. We got a whole bedroom suite for 600BD and it is top quality

I arrived in Bahrain just over a year ago and decided to rent a furnished place not too far from work in Adliya. We have recently moved to another furnished flat in Juffair and plan on moving to a unfurnished Villa the following year.

Currently we do not see a huge benefit in investing in furniture and I am an Interior Design, who has access to some amazing furniture in Asia. We wanted to see how Bahrain's political climate developed over the next year.

There were two reasons we went for furnished flats. First it was close to my work and the kids Nadeen School is 5 mins away too.. Secondly flats normally offer much better additional facilities. Some villa compounds are now cheap too but mostly outside Manama, we did not want to travel that far.

Next year we are planning on sending the kids to British School of Bahrain or St Christophers. As both are on the outskirts of town, we will probably opt for the unfurnished villa option.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask, we have spent the last two weeks searching for accomodation and settled on Juffair because it's an expat haven and close to work/school.

Cheers
Shaz

Thanks for the info. When I look on the website bahrain property world (i think that's what it's called) there seems to be hardly any compound villa's for rent that are furnished and in my price range. Maybe our allowance is too low at about 800bd per month.

Jo, how cheap are we talking? I need at least 3 bedrooms.

800BD per month allowance is not bad at all. However to are looking for a villa, they don't come cheap mostly.

Have a look as well, you may find something that suit your budget.

Thanks for the link VidoDido - definitely more places advertised there in our price range.

ShazadAzam, thanks for sharing your experience. A flat would be more affordable for us and I think that is what the company my husband works for had in mind with our budget but with 3 kids I might go insane - or the neighbours will!

We need to be close to the causeway too so hopefully we will find something in our price range. I think we will rent some short term accommodation and spend some time looking around when we get there.

silver356 wrote:

Thanks for the info. When I look on the website bahrain property world (i think that's what it's called) there seems to be hardly any compound villa's for rent that are furnished and in my price range. Maybe our allowance is too low at about 800bd per month.

Jo, how cheap are we talking? I need at least 3 bedrooms.

Hi Silver

Private message me so we can discuss

Jo

We are going to rent (3 bed apartment)in Um al Hassam area for 850 BD all inclusive. My husband says its not too far from causeway to commute and is close to school that they are enrolled in. We could not get a place in St Christophers or BSB so are on a waiting list for next yr .

gwen72 wrote:

We are going to rent (3 bed apartment)in Um al Hassam area for 850 BD all inclusive. My husband says its not too far from causeway to commute and is close to school that they are enrolled in. We could not get a place in St Christophers or BSB so are on a waiting list for next yr .

For 50BD more i could have got you a 4 bed villa with pool and gym. Argh about the schools. Are you going to teach them at home or send them elsewhere for a year?

Pity about that but he signed the lease last week !!
The kids will go to another school for the moment - don't think I could cope with home schooling !

Well at least they are in school and you are on the waiting list. A good start at least.