Painting that survives a Dubai summer.
Interior and exterior painting for apartments, villas, offices and whole buildings — prepared properly, priced before we start, and finished in rooms you can use the same evening.
What painting actually costs in Dubai.
Most quotes in this market are a number on a WhatsApp message with nothing behind it. These are our starting rates. They assume sound walls and normal access; the survey tells us whether that is true, and we fix the price before any work begins.
| Scope | Unit | From |
|---|---|---|
| Interior repaint, standard emulsion | per sq m of wall area | AED 14 |
| Studio apartment, interior | per unit | AED 600 |
| 1-bedroom apartment, interior | per unit | AED 900 |
| 2-bedroom apartment, interior | per unit | AED 1,200 |
| 3-bedroom apartment or townhouse, interior | per unit | AED 1,500 |
| 4-bedroom villa, interior | per unit | AED 2,000 |
| Landlord block repaint, 4 units or more | per unit | AED 1,450 |
Prices exclude VAT. Exterior, high-level and specialist coatings are quoted on survey because access, not area, drives the cost.
Four things, and none of them is the paint.
Paint is a small part of a painting job. When one quote is half another, the difference is almost always in this list.
- Filling, crack repair and sanding before any coat goes on
- Sealer or primer where the surface is new, patched or chalking
- Removing failed or flaking previous coatings rather than painting over them
- Treating the cause of water staining before covering it
- Standard ceiling height against double-height voids and stairwells
- Scaffold, tower or cradle for exterior and high-level work
- Lift bookings, protection and approved delivery windows
- Occupied buildings where work runs outside normal hours
- A shade change over a dark existing colour needs an extra coat
- Washable and scrubbable finishes for corridors and kitchens
- Moisture-resistant systems for bathrooms and wet areas
- UV-stable masonry coatings for anything facing the sun
- Empty units are faster and cheaper — we pass that on
- Occupied homes are worked room by room and cleared nightly
- Offices and clinics are usually done evenings or weekends
- Furniture moving and protection, where it is needed
Why coatings fail here faster than they should.
A finish that lasts five years in a temperate climate does not get five years in Dubai. Three things shorten it, and all three are avoidable with the right system rather than the cheapest one.
West and south elevations take direct sun at 45°C and above for months. A standard emulsion chalks, fades and loses film integrity within two summers. Exterior work gets a UV-stable masonry coating or there is no point doing it.
Cold supply air against warm humid air produces condensation around diffusers, in bathrooms and in poorly ventilated rooms. Mould follows. Those areas need a moisture-resistant system, and where mould is already present it is treated rather than painted over.
Coastal villas and towers carry salt deposits on external surfaces that attack the coating and the substrate beneath it. Washing down before coating is part of the job, not an optional extra.
Fresh plaster and blockwork hold construction moisture for months. Sealing too early traps it and the finish blisters. On handover units we check the surface before committing to a date rather than painting to a programme and arguing later.
Repaints between tenancies.
Turnaround work is a different job from a one-off decoration. The constraint is the handover date, not the decorating.
- Priced per unit from AED 1,450 on four units or more
- Scheduled against your handover and check-in dates
- Condition record and photographs for every unit
- One contact, one invoice across the whole block
- Deep clean before handover
- Make-good and snagging of the tenant's damage
- Handyman items picked up in the same visit
- An annual maintenance contract where the building is retained
Home renovation and refurbishment
Common questions.
How much does painting cost in Dubai?
For a standard interior repaint we start at AED 14 per square metre of wall area, and a whole unit is usually quoted as a fixed price — from AED 600 for a studio up to AED 2,000 for a four-bedroom villa. What moves the number is preparation, not paint: a wall that needs filling, sanding and a sealer coat costs more than one that needs two coats over a sound surface. We survey first and fix the price before anyone starts.
How long does a villa repaint take?
A three-bedroom villa interior is normally three to four working days, a four or five bedroom five to seven. Exterior work depends on access — if it needs scaffold or a cradle, that is a separate line and a separate programme. We give you the sequence in writing so you know which rooms are out of use on which days.
Can you paint while we are still living there?
Yes, and most of our residential work is done in occupied homes. We work room by room, sheet and mask everything that stays, and clear each room at the end of the shift so you are not living in a building site. It takes slightly longer than an empty unit and we price it that way rather than pretending otherwise.
Which paint do you use?
Whatever the specification or the building calls for. For most Dubai interiors that is a washable emulsion from one of the established brands; bathrooms and kitchens get a moisture-resistant finish; exteriors get a UV-stable masonry coating because anything else chalks within two summers. If you have a landlord specification or a community colour scheme, we work to it.
Do you repair the wall before painting?
Yes. Filling, crack repair, sanding and sealing are part of the price, not an extra discovered halfway through. Where there is water damage we find the cause first — painting over a live leak is money thrown away, and we will tell you if that is what you are asking for.
Do you work for landlords and property managers?
Regularly. Block repaints between tenancies are priced per unit from AED 1,450 on four units or more, and we schedule around your handover dates. One contact, one invoice, and a condition record for each unit so there is no argument about what was repainted.
Tell us the unit and we will price the repaint.
Send us the size, how many rooms and whether it is occupied. We survey, fix the price in writing, and tell you how many days it takes before you commit.