Yvonne Akpofure, 29, started a brand new life thousands of miles away in the Middle East – and she has no regretsYvonne wanted to escape the dull UK weather for good(Image: Yvonne Akpofure)

A young woman who left the UK to start a brand new life in Qatar says that living in the Middle East is ‘so much better’ – and now plans to stay there long-term.

After growing fed up with the dull UK weather and rising cost of living, Yvonne Akpofure, 29, decided to up sticks to Doha, the capital and financial hub of Qatar, in search of a better and more fulfilling lifestyle.

The lawyer and self-published author was renting a flat in Manchester when she chose to take the plunge and look for jobs in the Middle East.

After originally having her sights set on Dubai but deciding it was too ‘saturated’, Yvonne expanded her search area to Qatar. A fleeting trip there was all it took for her to fall in love with the place, and after securing a job at a law firm, she packed up and moved in September 2024.

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Fast forward a year, and after an admittedly tough first six months settling in, Yvonne has now found her feet and is loving life in the new place she calls home.

“I went on my first holiday to Dubai when I was 23 and I just thought ‘I really love it here’. I just love being in the sun,” Yvonne told the Manchester Evening News.

“It was not long after Covid happened, so no one was really thinking about moving anywhere. I then bought a house with my friend in Surrey in 2021, so I kind of thought I was over the thought of moving abroad.

“But then 18 months later I got itchy feet again. I wanted to move but I didn’t know whether it was the right time to move abroad. I wanted to live in a city, so I thought I’d move to Manchester in the meantime.”

Yvonne began renting an apartment in the city centre in September 2023, but still had moving to the Middle East in the back of her mind.

Yvonne says she has a much better life in Doha(Image: Yvonne Akpofure)

“The weather is the number one thing I dislike about the UK. It rains all the time, summer lasts for about two months, and then it’s back to raining again. It just makes me miserable,” she admitted.

“The second thing is paying tax. I feel like a lot of our money goes on taxes and as a single person in particular, life can just be very very expensive.

“The third thing is the lifestyle over there, because people just spend much more time outdoors. There’s so much more that you can do when it’s sunny all the time and you never have to rely on the weather.”

Just a few months after moving to Manchester, Yvonne had a change of heart. “In my mind I thought, ‘I’ll never do it if I don’t do it now.’ The worst that could happen was I’d move, and then if I didn’t like it, I’d just come back, rather than always wondering ‘what if’,” she said.

Whilst looking for jobs, Yvonne began to consider a move to Qatar. “Dubai was definitely the first choice, but where Dubai is quite saturated, I then expanded my search to other Middle East countries and Qatar was the next one that was up and coming,” she said.

“There is a big expat community and it is quite similar to Dubai. Eventually I got a job offer but they said come and visit to actually see if you actually like it, and as soon as I came over I was like ‘yeah I love it’.”

Yvonne says living in the UK is ‘very different’ to Qatar(Image: Yvonne Akpofure)

After securing a job in Doha, Yvonne left Manchester in July 2024 and moved back home to Surrey for two months before her big move overseas in September 2024.

But admittedly, the first six months were testing. “I’ve been here nearly a year now, but the first six months were difficult. Everybody who has moved here will probably tell you the same thing,” Yvonne says.

“The culture is just completely different to the UK, it operates very differently even just down to day-to-day things like how people drive and communicate. There are a lot of different nationalities here and English isn’t everyone’s first language so you have to navigate that.

“The working style is also very different. There’s a lot more process in the UK, whereas there’s not as much process, and as a lawyer that was quite challenging because I’m quite used to there being a rigid process.”

After moving to Doha alone, Yvonne admitted that making friends was also challenging. “I didn’t know anyone in Qatar which was quite tough, you have to go out of your way to meet people and make friends,” she said.

“I met a couple of girls through TikTok, as I saw some people posting about their move to Doha so I just commented on their videos, and some of them also did the same to me.

“Then there were a couple of people in the UK who saw I had moved, and said that they knew people out here, so I met some people through mutual friends. I also joined a run club so I met a couple of people, as well as a couple of networking events and going out.”

Yvonne has now made lots of new friends after moving to Doha alone(Image: Yvonne Akpofure)

Despite having a tricky time adjusting to her move, Yvonne admits she never doubted her decision. “There was never a point where I was like, ‘I’ve done the wrong thing’ but I just wondered when does this actually get easier?,” she said.

“That first six months was a character building experience. However, I think once you push past that and when you meet people, life becomes a lot easier.”

“I was going through the motions of a new job, new place, new friends, there was a lot to adjust to and you’re overstimulated. I think there’s a lot of people that might pack it in before the six month mark because they just think ‘this is just a lot’.

“My advice is to just push past that because it does get easier. You just need to accept that things aren’t done the same way that they are in the UK.”

Yvonne is renting a one-bed apartment in Doha, and says that the property market is much less fierce than the UK, especially in major cities like Manchester and London.

The lawyer plans to live in the Middle East long-term(Image: Yvonne Akpofure)

“I found the whole process much simpler compared to the UK,” Yvonne explains. “There are a lot of apartments here, and they don’t all go really quickly. I think there is definitely more supply than demand.

“You can often just walk into a building and say ‘I’m looking for an apartment,’ and somebody will probably show you around, and then you go from there.

“You have to sign all of your cheques up front for 12 months which is a bit different. So here they still use chequebooks, so you give them all to the agent or landlord and then they will cash the cheques on the first of every month, and then that’s it.

“All bills are usually included. The only thing I needed to sort out was my internet but I just went to the shop and then the next day there was someone here installing it all for me.”

The lawyer also says that renting is generally more affordable too, which is helped by not paying tax.

“It all depends on where you live in Doha, but to live in the nicest area of Doha in a very nice one-bed, I’d say the price is about 40 percent cheaper than a nice one-bed apartment in Manchester,” Yvonne says.

The stunning view from Yvonne’s apartment in Doha(Image: Yvonne Akpofure)

“For my apartment I pay 10,000 QAR which is around £2,000, which sounds like a lot but it is tax free so you do have more disposable income.

“You would also struggle to get an apartment that is of this size in Manchester. It’s got a really big bedroom, two bathrooms and two balconies overlooking the sea.

“Again this is probably the nicest part of Doha. You could live somewhere else that’s still really nice, but pay probably £600 less a month. Renting is definitely way more affordable here, you get much more for your money.”

Yvonne says that another big difference between living in the UK and Doha is the healthcare. “Every employer has to provide you with private healthcare, and the speed and convenience of it here is much better.

In the UK you might be on a waiting list to see a GP for three weeks, whereas here, they will literally book you in the same day.”

The 29-year-old has been back to the UK three times since moving to Doha, but says the Middle East now feels like home. “I do have plans to stay here long term. I see myself having a life here and having a career here. I’m not sure what would bring me back to the UK now,” she admits.

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Yvonne has recently released her debut self-published memoir ‘Wine, Weekends and What Came After’ about her experiences of modern dating and importance of female friendships.

“I had all these dating stories like many other women and I just thought ‘let’s just put this into a book’. The more I wrote it, the more I got into it and thought ‘I’ve got something here’.

“The book basically goes through the journey that I went on as a young woman from university until my mid 20s. There’s ups and there’s downs, but I’ve written it in a light-hearted way so that a lot of women can relate, feel like they’re not alone, and laugh at all the funny stories.

“It’s still surreal seeing the physical copy. The response has been really positive so far, there’s a lot of people that have finished the book already when it’s only been out two weeks”

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