How London and Dubai compare on cost, visas, working hours, weather, internet and safety. Every figure comes from our city guides and tools, checked and dated there.
Dollars and pounds at today's exchange rate. Download speeds are the typical figure from each guide, which says where it comes from: some are for the city, some for the whole country, so treat a small gap as no gap.
Rent, a coworking desk, a cheap lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around: the same four costs our budget calculator uses. The rent figures aren't always the same kind of figure (some are furnished one-beds, some are averages across every size of flat), so read the note under each.
$2,590 to $3,400£1,950 to £2,560 a month
$3,150 to $5,580£2,370 to £4,190 a month
No remote work visa
The catch. There is no digital nomad visa. Visitors may work remotely for their employment overseas only if it is not the main purpose of the visit (Immigration Rules, Appendix Visitor, PA 4(h)), and work for UK customers must be done outside the UK. Whether freelancers and owners of a foreign company are covered is unclear. British passport holders need nothing: it's home. Visa-free visitors need a GBP 20 ETA, and since 25 February 2026 airlines can refuse to board you without one. Remote work must not be the reason for the trip, so back-to-back long stays that look like living here can get you refused at the border.
Dubai virtual work residence
The catch. The permit assumes your work comes from outside the UAE. Landlords usually want a year's rent in advance, often in one to four cheques.
See where your own income stands in every country. Check your income
A 9am to 5pm day in the employer's city, shown in local time, for today's date, so it allows for the clocks changing.
Different hours or another employer city? Use the time-zone planner
The average high in °C each month, coloured by the rule on our best-time page: green is a high of 20 to 32°C with under 150mm of rain; red is a high of 38°C or more or under 12°C, 250mm of rain or more, or 33°C or more with 150mm of rain or more. Hover over a month for its rain.
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 8° | 9° | 12° | 15° | 18° | 22° | 24° | 23° | 20° | 16° | 12° | 9° |
| Dubai | 24° | 25° | 30° | 34° | 38° | 40° | 42° | 42° | 40° | 37° | 31° | 26° |
Level 2: increased caution
Level 3: reconsider travel
The US level is for the whole country, as the State Department sets it, and some countries have stricter advice for particular regions.
From each city guide, word for word.
English-speaking employees of overseas companies who want a few months in a world city with no language barrier. A GBP 20 ETA is a one-off formality, and the rules say outright that you may work remotely for your employer abroad. It suits anyone paid in a currency that holds its own against the pound who values culture, transport, and working hours that overlap with both Europe and the US East Coast. And it suits British passport holders, who simply live here.
Anyone who wants a digital nomad visa, a residence permit or a path to settling. There is no such route, visitor time counts for nothing, and the government has said settlement will move from five to ten years even on real work visas. Anyone on a budget: an average one-bed in the areas people want runs GBP 1,882 to 2,001 a month before bills, plus GBP 171.70 for a Zones 1-2 Travelcard and GBP 289 or more for a coworking desk. Anyone who needs sun: October to January bring 11 or so rain days a month. And freelancers who serve UK clients, who cannot do that work here as visitors.
A salaried remote employee earning at least USD 3,500 a month from a company outside the UAE who wants a self-sponsored year with no personal income tax. The permit is fast and cheap, you can bring family on it, the metro works, and October to April is some of the best weather anywhere. If you are happy treating the city as somewhere you work in air conditioning and play outdoors for half the year, it is very easy to live in.
Anyone whose income is mostly from UAE clients, or irregular. Anyone who cannot put down a year's rent up front. Anyone who resents being told what they can post online, how to behave in public or which medicines they can carry: a rude message or a trace of cannabis from a trip elsewhere can mean prison. Anyone gay, because same-sex relations are a crime. Anyone who needs to WhatsApp-call home. And anyone who wilts in heat: from June to August the average daily high is over 40 degrees, and the state bans outdoor work at midday for three months.
Most visas want health cover for the whole stay. Compare nomad health insurance · Build your trip checklist