Reviewed November 2026. Prices are Bait Al Ebdaa's published starting prices, in AED and excluding 5% VAT. Your own quotation follows a site survey.
Ask how much an office fit-out costs in Dubai and the usual answer is "it depends". That is true, but it does not help when you need a budget before signing a lease. This guide sets out how office fit-out cost in Dubai is priced with us: a rate per square foot at three finish levels, worked examples from our published prices, the costs that sit outside that rate, and what to check when you compare quotes.
Office fit-out cost per square foot
Office fit-out is priced by floor area, because most of the work grows with it: ceilings, flooring, lighting, partitions and MEP. We publish three levels:
- Essential office fit-out, AED 220–350 per sq ft: a practical, well-finished workplace with open-plan workstations, meeting rooms and a reception, in durable standard finishes.
- Premium office fit-out, AED 400–650 per sq ft: more glass partitioning, acoustic treatment, feature ceilings and lighting, and custom joinery in the areas clients see.
- Executive or luxury office fit-out, from AED 700 per sq ft: bespoke joinery throughout, natural materials such as stone and veneer, and executive suites finished to the standard of a luxury home.
These describe each level in general terms; what your project includes is set out in its quotation. Where a project lands inside a range depends on the condition of the space and the specification, explained below.
Worked examples
- A 2,000 sq ft office at the essential level: about AED 440,000 to AED 700,000.
- A 5,000 sq ft office at the premium level: about AED 2,000,000 to AED 3,250,000.
- A 1,500 sq ft management suite at the executive level: from AED 1,050,000.
Mixing levels is common, and often the best use of a budget: a premium reception and boardroom, with essential-level open-plan areas behind them. Price each zone at its own level and add them up. These are starting figures for planning, not a quote.
What a turnkey office fit-out covers
With us, one contract takes the space from its handover condition to a working office:
- Space planning and design, approved in photorealistic 3D before any site work starts
- Civil works: partitions, ceilings, flooring and wall finishes
- MEP: electrical, lighting, plumbing and air-conditioning changes
- Joinery, from reception panelling to wall cladding and storage, made in our own 15,000 sq ft factory in Ajman
- Authority submissions and NOC coordination for your building and scope
- Snagging and final handover
What changes the cost of an office fit-out
- The condition you start from. A unit handed over as shell and core needs ceilings, floors, air-conditioning distribution and lighting before any design shows. A unit that already has them, often called Category A, needs less, and an existing office with a usable layout can need less again.
- MEP scope. Every extra meeting room means more air-conditioning zones, lighting circuits and power and data points; moving a pantry or washroom means plumbing work.
- Partitions and glazing. Acoustic glass partitions cost more than drywall, and every enclosed room adds a door, lighting and ventilation.
- Acoustics. Open-plan offices often need acoustic ceilings or panels to work well. On our Downtown Dubai project, acoustic treatment and cable management were designed in from the start, which costs less than adding them later.
- Joinery. Reception counters, wall panelling, pantry units and storage made to measure add cost in proportion to how much is custom.
- Finishes. Carpet tiles against stone or timber floors, and paint against veneer or fabric wall finishes, are where the three levels differ most.
- Working around a live business. Phased work in an occupied office, or work outside business hours, takes longer than fitting out an empty floor.
Approvals, NOCs and authority fees
Before work starts, an office fit-out usually needs the landlord's or building's approval and, depending on the scope, a permit from the relevant authority. Which authority applies depends on where the building is; our turnkey fit-out in Dubai page explains how that is decided and links to the authorities' own pages.
Our coordination fees are published: landlord or community NOC coordination from AED 2,500, Dubai Municipality approval support from AED 4,500, and a complete office fit-out approval package from AED 7,500. Civil Defence, MEP and specialist coordination is quoted for each project. Authority, developer and consultant fees are charged separately at actual cost.
Design fees for an office
Office design is priced by area, from AED 20 per sq ft, and covers space planning, material selection, lighting design and photorealistic 3D renders, so the design for a 5,000 sq ft office starts from AED 100,000. If you plan to tender the build, you will also need working drawings, from AED 12 per sq ft, and a material schedule, from AED 3,500, so that every contractor prices the same work.
When Bait Al Ebdaa is appointed for the complete fit-out, eligible design fees may be credited toward the project, subject to contract value and agreed terms. For more detail, read our interior design fees guide or see our office interior design service in Dubai.
What the per-square-foot rate does not include
Our published prices exclude 5% VAT, authority fees, specialist access and third-party charges unless the quotation specifically includes them. Loose furniture, IT and audio-visual systems vary so much from one business to another that they are best priced as separate lines. When you compare quotes, check whether each one includes them.
Two offices, two scales
For a technology company's 12,000 sq ft office in Downtown Dubai, we planned open-plan workstations, meeting rooms and a reception finished with custom joinery panelling, coordinated the MEP works and handled the Dubai Municipality and DDA submissions.
At the other end of the scale, a 50,500 sq ft government authority headquarters in Dubai Academic City ran across three floors, with a zone for each department, ergonomic sit-stand workstations, privacy and noise-control elements, and collaboration spaces for different ways of working. A floor plate that size shows why the rate per square foot matters more than any single feature: every small increase in the rate is multiplied 50,500 times.
How to compare office fit-out quotes
Put the quotes side by side and ask the same six questions of each:
- Is it priced per square foot, as a lump sum, or both, and on which area: the leased area or the area actually being fitted out?
- Does every quote start from the same condition: shell and core, Category A, or an existing office?
- Which MEP works are included, and are they based on drawings or on allowances?
- Are approvals and NOCs included, and are authority fees shown separately?
- Are loose furniture, IT and audio-visual systems included or excluded?
- Who makes the joinery, and what guarantee comes with it?
We make our joinery in our own factory and give a five-year workmanship guarantee on the joinery we manufacture and install.
Getting an accurate quote
Bring the floor plan, your building's fit-out guidelines if it has them, your headcount and the number of meeting rooms you need, and your target move-in date. The site survey is free. See our office fit-out service in Dubai or the full price list.