“One of us” has decided another year in the aging apartment here in the Hadbat Al Zafranah neighborhood … is “a non-starter.”

Thus, we are in house-hunting mode. Half-hearted house-hunting mode, in the case of the other of us, but actually looking around.

How is it going?

So far, not well.

Here is the assumption with which we are grappling: A bunch of new housing has come on the market here in Abu Dhabi, including several towers with amenities — pool, gym, businesses on the ground floor.  The sort of thing common in Dubai, up the coast, but fairly rare in Abu Dhabi — a very horizontal city. Until recently.

In theory, then, this new housing is pushing down prices.

In practice, it doesn’t seem to be working out that way. Not really.

Especially when you go to one of the new, less-expensive developments on Reem Island (the island next door to Abu Dhabi Island) … and are a little creeped out at the vibe of the place. (Plus, the agents at the Sun and Sky Towers don’t work on weekend, which is just crazy, so we didn’t actually see inside anything.)

So, today, I decided to take a look at another group of towers, about a 15-minute ride from our current location, called Rihan Heights, which is in an area I’m far more familiar with — just behind the Zayed Sports City complex.

The least expensive one-bedrooms there are going for 95,000 dirhams a year — which is about $26,000. Which is considerably more than we are paying now.

They’re new. Yes. And the towers aren’t as creepy-tall as the ones over on Reem Island. But they have constructed five towers in this case, with more than 850 units, and it has a chance to be as big and impersonal as the Reem Island stuff.

I must concede that the agent there, Christine from Lebanon, was very helpful. But the price! In Dubai, we could get something like that for perhaps 50,000 dirhams — $13,500 — a year.

So, we continue. One other tower interests us; inexpensive, as far as we can tell, and just a couple of blocks away, and close to the office.

After that … we may be looking at villas, which is the name given here to large houses, generally three stories high, subdivided into numerous apartments.

Two things make this tricky.

One is the declaration this week from the Abu Dhabi government that all government employees must live with Abu Dhabi. Quite a lot of people live in Dubai (which is cheaper) and work in Abu Dhabi, making the daily 160-miles roundtrip commute. If all those Dubai people have to move to Abu Dhabi in the next year, won’t that create upwards pressure on prices here? I fear so.

Second, is that I don’t love where we are at now … but I don’t hate it. It’s on the ground floor, it has a patio, the office is walkable, in the winter … And the biggest thing is, we don’t have to move to continue to live here, and a move presumably would include having to buy a batch of furniture we don’t have.

So. A couple of months to figure this out, before the current lease runs out. So far, it’s a frustrating experience, but real estate here is never fun, as we have discovered in previous years, when attempts to pay less have not worked out well.