Office fit-out in Dubai costs between AED 90 and AED 600 per square foot in 2026, depending on the grade of finish and the condition of the unit you take over. A standard Cat B office fit-out for a commercial tenant typically lands between AED 160 and AED 260 per square foot, which works out to roughly AED 1,700 to AED 2,800 per square metre. A 5,000 sq ft office at that rate costs around AED 800,000 to AED 1.3 million delivered.
That is the short answer. The rest of this page explains where the number actually comes from, what sits inside a fit-out contract and what does not, and why two contractors can quote the same office and land AED 400,000 apart without either of them being wrong.
Quick reference: cost per square foot by grade
| Grade | What you get | AED / sq ft | AED / sq m |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat A completion | Raised floor, suspended ceiling, base HVAC, lighting, fire system, blank shell ready for a tenant | 90 – 150 | 970 – 1,600 |
| Standard Cat B | Partitions, meeting rooms, basic joinery, carpet or vinyl, standard lighting, MEP modification | 160 – 260 | 1,700 – 2,800 |
| Premium Cat B | Bespoke joinery, glass partitioning, feature ceilings, acoustic treatment, upgraded MEP, AV integration | 270 – 420 | 2,900 – 4,500 |
| Headquarters / flagship | Full architectural intervention, imported finishes, custom lighting design, BMS, boardroom AV, wellness spaces | 430 – 600+ | 4,600 – 6,500+ |
These are indicative build ranges for Dubai in 2026. They exclude loose furniture, IT hardware, landlord deposits and rent. Every project gets priced against its own drawings, its own building, and its own authority requirements.
Most people asking about fit-out cost start with area. Area sets the scale, but grade sets the rate, and grade is where the money moves.
The single biggest variable is what condition the unit is in when you receive it.
Shell and core. Bare concrete. No ceiling, no raised floor, no distributed HVAC, no lighting, sometimes no toilets. You are building an office from nothing. Shell and core units are cheaper to rent and considerably more expensive to fit out, because you are paying for the Cat A works and the Cat B works together. Budget an additional AED 90 to AED 150 per square foot on top of your Cat B rate.
Cat A. The landlord has installed the base build. Raised access floor, suspended ceiling grid, primary HVAC distribution, fire detection and sprinklers, basic lighting, finished core areas. The space is complete but empty and generic. Most Grade A towers in DIFC, Business Bay and Sheikh Zayed Road hand over at Cat A.
Cat B. This is the tenant fit-out. Everything that turns a blank floor into your office: partitions, meeting rooms, joinery, reception, flooring, branding, IT infrastructure, and the MEP modifications needed to serve the new layout.
When a landlord’s agent tells you the unit is Cat A, verify it against the actual specification before you budget. In practice “Cat A” in Dubai covers a wide span. Some units arrive with a full raised floor and working VAV boxes. Others arrive with a ceiling grid, a few light fittings and a promise. That gap is worth AED 60 to AED 100 per square foot.
| Project | Area | Grade | Indicative build cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup office, Business Bay, Cat A unit | 1,200 sq ft | Standard Cat B | AED 195,000 – 310,000 |
| Regional office, Sheikh Zayed Road, Cat A unit | 5,000 sq ft | Premium Cat B | AED 1.35m – 2.1m |
| Corporate HQ, DIFC, shell and core | 15,000 sq ft | Headquarters | AED 7.5m – 11m |
The third figure looks large until you break it down. A shell and core headquarters at 15,000 sq ft carries the Cat A works, a full MEP design and installation, extensive joinery, an executive floor, and a level of authority coordination that a 1,200 sq ft office never touches.
For a typical Dubai office fit-out, the cost splits roughly like this.
| Package | Share of build cost |
|---|---|
| MEP: HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, BMS | 30 – 40% |
| Partitions, ceilings, doors and glazing | 12 – 18% |
| Joinery and millwork | 10 – 18% |
| Flooring | 6 – 10% |
| Finishes, paint, wall treatments | 5 – 8% |
| Preliminaries, site management, insurance, waste | 6 – 10% |
| Design and documentation | 4 – 8% |
| Authority approvals and submissions | 2 – 4% |
MEP is the largest single line and the most commonly underestimated. It is also the package where cheap tendering costs the most later. Undersized chilled water capacity, an electrical load that will not carry the meeting room AV, or a fire alarm layout that fails Civil Defence inspection are all problems that get discovered after ceilings are closed, which is the most expensive moment to find them.
If you are working from an old MEP design that was drawn for a different layout, expect a variation. Moving a wall in a Dubai office moves a diffuser, a sprinkler head, a smoke detector and a light circuit with it.
A fit-out quotation covers construction. It does not cover everything you will spend to occupy the space. These are the items that catch tenants out.
Add these up on a 5,000 sq ft office and the number is rarely less than AED 200,000 on top of the build. Budget for it at the start rather than discovering it in month four.
Seven drivers account for most of the variance between projects of the same size.
Some savings are real. Others just move the cost somewhere less visible.
Real savings:
False savings:
Three offers for the same office can vary by 40%. Usually the difference is not the contractor’s margin. It is what each of them included.
Ask for the quotation to be broken down by package, not presented as a single lump sum. Then check these specific points.
A quotation that is materially cheaper than the others is usually cheaper for a reason that is written down somewhere in the exclusions.
Most fit-out contracts in the UAE follow a similar shape. Expect an advance payment of 20 to 30% on signature to cover mobilisation and material procurement, then monthly interim valuations against work completed on site, then a final payment on practical completion, with 5 to 10% retention held and released after the defects liability period.
Be cautious about front-loaded payment schedules that ask for a large percentage before any material arrives on site. Be equally cautious about contractors who agree to terms that are clearly uneconomic for them, because the pressure shows up later as a variation claim or a stalled programme.
A Dubai office fit-out runs roughly 12 to 24 weeks from appointment to handover. Design and authority approvals take 4 to 8 weeks of that. Construction takes 8 to 16 weeks depending on scope and access restrictions.
Compressing a programme costs money. Night shifts, parallel trades in the same zone, expedited material shipping and additional supervision all carry a premium. If your lease start date and your occupation date are close together, that gap gets priced in.
The cheapest way to save time is to spend longer on design and approvals before mobilising to site. Projects that go to site with unresolved drawings finish late and over budget, consistently.
Between AED 90 and AED 600 per square foot in 2026. A standard Cat B office fit-out costs AED 160 to AED 260 per square foot. Premium fit-outs run AED 270 to AED 420, and headquarters-grade projects exceed AED 430. The rate depends on the condition of the unit, the density of enclosed rooms, and the finish specification.
Cat A is the landlord’s base build: raised floor, ceiling grid, primary HVAC, fire systems and basic lighting. It costs AED 90 to AED 150 per square foot. Cat B is the tenant fit-out that follows, covering partitions, joinery, flooring, branding and MEP modification, at AED 160 to AED 420 per square foot. If you take a shell and core unit, you pay for both.
Twelve to twenty-four weeks from appointment to handover. Design and authority approvals account for 4 to 8 weeks. Construction accounts for 8 to 16 weeks. Larger or heavily serviced offices, and buildings with out-of-hours working restrictions, sit at the longer end.
Yes. A fit-out permit from Dubai Municipality is required for interior alteration works. Civil Defence approval is required for anything affecting fire detection, suppression or means of escape, which almost every partition layout does. DEWA approval is required where the works change the electrical load or affect the metered supply. Approvals typically add 4 to 8 weeks and AED 15,000 to AED 60,000 to a standard office project.
Loose furniture, IT and AV hardware, landlord deposits and building management fees, Ejari and trade licence costs, and your own insurance. Structured cabling is usually included; the equipment it connects is not. Always confirm whether authority fees and MEP modification are inside the scope or listed as provisional sums.
Rarely. Splitting design, fit-out and MEP across separate firms removes single-point accountability. When the MEP design does not coordinate with the ceiling layout, there is no one contractually responsible for the clash, and it gets resolved as a variation. An integrated contract usually costs less in total even where the headline fee is similar.
Between AED 12,000 and AED 90,000 depending on size, material and detailing. A straightforward laminate desk sits at the lower end. Solid surface, stone, backlit feature panels and integrated joinery push it upward quickly. Reception is often where a disproportionate share of a joinery budget goes.
Yes, with phasing. Works are sequenced zone by zone, usually with temporary partitions and dust screens, and noisy activity is moved to out-of-hours. Phasing adds cost, typically 10 to 20% on the affected scope, and lengthens the programme. It is almost always cheaper than the disruption of relocating twice.
Every figure on this page is a range, because a fit-out price is a function of your specific unit, your layout, your building’s rules and the authorities involved. The only way to a firm number is a site survey and a set of drawings.
Hitesh Design & Build has delivered fit-out projects across Dubai and the UAE since 1994, handling interior design and fit-out, MEP and technical services, and architectural design and authority approvals under one contract. You can see completed work in our project case studies.
If you have a unit and a lease date, send us the details and we will come back with a cost breakdown against your actual space rather than a range.
