Fit Out Company in Abu Dhabi

What changes when the fit-out is in Abu Dhabi

The building work is the same as anywhere in the UAE. What changes is the permit system. In Abu Dhabi, maintenance and building permits are issued by the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) and applied for online through TAMM, the government services platform, after signing in with UAE PASS.

If the villa is in a developer-managed community, expect the community to have its own approval step as well, and check its guidelines before you fix a start date.

Which Abu Dhabi permit fits your scope

TAMM separates interior works by how far they go. These are the three services that most residential fit-outs fall into, as TAMM describes them:

Painting and ceramic work in a villa

A dedicated residential villa maintenance permit covers painting and ceramic work. TAMM shows a fee of AED 100, paid online after the application is submitted.

Maintenance, improvements and décor without layout changes

The maintenance permit covers maintenance, improvements or décor for a building or shop, provided the work does not modify or change the interior spaces, create openings or affect structural safety. TAMM lists a pre-registered, effective lease agreement, an architectural layout plan and clear photos of all sides of the building, with seven working days to process and no additional cost.

Internal modifications

Anything that changes the interior layout falls outside the maintenance permit. TAMM's building permit service covers internal or external modifications without additions and reviews the engineering plans for compliance; it lists approved construction plans and architectural plans among the documents and ten working days to process.

Which of these your project needs follows from the drawings, so it is settled when the scope is drawn up, not guessed at the first meeting.

Case study: a turnkey villa on Saadiyat Island

On the Saadiyat Island villa, a 7,500 sq ft residence completed in 2026, the media wall, fitted wardrobes and dressing suite were manufactured at our factory in Ajman and installed on site, with the civil works coordinated around them through to handover. DMT approval coordination was also part of that project's scope.

Fit-out costs in Abu Dhabi

We publish one price list for the whole UAE, so an Abu Dhabi villa fit-out starts from the same figures as a Dubai one: AED 300–450 per sq ft for a standard specification and AED 500–750 per sq ft for luxury, before VAT. Office fit-out starts at AED 220–350 per sq ft.

The bigger budget question in Abu Dhabi is scope rather than location. Keeping the existing layout keeps the project within the maintenance permit; moving walls or merging rooms brings in a building permit, engineering plans and more MEP work. Permit fees themselves are passed on at actual cost: TAMM shows AED 100 for the villa paint and ceramic permit and no additional cost for the maintenance and building permit services.

Planning the programme

Three things set the start date on site: the permit (TAMM lists seven working days for a maintenance permit and ten for a building permit), any community approval, and joinery production, which starts once the drawings are signed off and takes place at our Ajman factory before installation on site.