How much does renovation cost in Dubai?

Renovation cost Dubai figures only make sense by scope, because the market prices each kind of work in its own unit: a bathroom per bathroom, a kitchen as a job total, a villa per square foot or as a total, and design as a fee. The answer below uses the bands UAE companies publish for their own work, read on each company's page on 18 September 2026 and quoted as published, never averaged.

What does each kind of job cost?

The apartment rows come from one company's published tiers for one and two-bedroom units, which is why they are labelled that way. Every other row reflects several companies' published figures. The line guides break each band down further: the villa price guide by size and community, and the apartment cost guide from studio to three bedrooms.

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How should you budget for a renovation in Dubai?

1. List the rooms and lines you are changing: each bathroom, the kitchen, the rest of the home.
2. Price each in its own unit from the table: bathrooms one by one, the kitchen as a total, the rest by area and finish.
3. Add the designer's fee if a designer leads the project, at 10 to 20 percent of the project value.
4. Add the fees outside the contractor's price: the developer's NOC and any authority permit.
5. Check whether each quote includes VAT at 5 percent, and bring them all to the same basis.

A worked example with published figures only: a guest bathroom at AED 8,000 to 15,000, a standard bathroom at AED 15,000 to 45,000 and a small kitchen at AED 12,000 to 40,000 come to AED 35,000 to 100,000 before fees and VAT. The spread is the point. Where your job lands inside it depends on the finish you choose and what opening the walls reveals, which is why the rate, the area and the finish specification on each quote matter more than its total.

Why do quotes for the same job differ so much?

Mostly assumptions. Five companies that publish villa rates converge at roughly AED 350 to 600 per square foot for mid-range work, yet their totals for the same stated scope differ by a factor of three, because each assumes a different area and finish. The community moves the number too. Dar Al Naseeb Engineering Consultants, a Dubai firm, publishes AED 195 to 325 per square foot for independent mainland villas in Jumeirah, Umm Suqeim and Al Safa, and AED 595 to 1,020 on Palm Jumeirah. Access, parking, permitted hours and the developer's rules all cost a contractor money, and they show up in the price whether itemised or not.

Renovation cost Dubai against the other emirates

Almost every band in our cost index is written for Dubai, and none of them is stated for Abu Dhabi, Sharjah or Ajman, so prices there are confirmed per emirate, job by job. What does differ, and is published, is the cost of approvals. In Abu Dhabi, Tasareeh's fee structure puts a single-villa modification at about AED 5,900 in permit fees on the plots it reviews. Ajman charges AED 1,000 for a maintenance permit and AED 3.5 per m² for a residential building permit. Sharjah calculates modification fees per application, and publishes none. Our Abu Dhabi permits guide covers the first of these in full.

Which costs sit outside the contractor's quote?

Three kinds, and a quote should show each as its own line. Developer fees: Emaar's NOC costs AED 1,000 for minor works or AED 2,000 for major works in total, of which AED 500 is paid up front as a non-refundable review fee and deducted from the total. Nakheel's 2023 villa design codes charged AED 1,000 plus VAT and held an AED 10,000 refundable contractor deposit, but Nakheel took those codes down when Dubai Holding Community Management took over, and DHCM's 2026 rulebook publishes neither figure, so confirm both with the community office. Authority fees: in a DDA zone, fit-out takes a permit at AED 0.90 per square foot with an AED 200 minimum and AED 10,000 maximum, and a residential modification takes the Building Modification permit at AED 1.0 per sq ft of added area; Dubai Municipality does not publish its permit fees. And VAT at 5 percent, if the quote is stated before it, as our VAT guide explains. The quote checklist lists every line a comparable quote needs. When you are ready, our Dubai renovation company service puts one brief to licensed contractors who quote against these bands.

Get quotes against the bands