What a retail fit-out actually costs.
Most guides give you a range from AED 350 to AED 1,800 a square foot and leave you no wiser. This page gives you our rate card, element by element, and a worked example you can check.
Why a price per square foot tells you nothing.
Published figures for retail in Dubai run from about AED 350 to AED 1,800 per square foot. That is a fivefold spread, which means the number is doing no work. A shop is not priced by area — it is priced by what goes into it. Two units of identical size can differ by AED 400,000 because one has a glazed shopfront and twelve metres of joinery and the other has a painted wall and a counter.
- Shopfront — painted hoarding, or structural glazing with automatic doors
- Joinery density — linear metres of counter, display and storage per square foot
- Ceiling — plain gypsum against bulkheads, coves and feature lighting
- Services — a split unit against a ducted system with a fresh-air interface
- Floor — LVT against stone, terrazzo or polished concrete
- Whether the unit is a bare shell or a stripped-out previous tenancy
- Mall landlord requirements, deposits and permitted working hours
- Authority submissions — Dubai Municipality and Civil Defence
- Whether the programme runs nights, which changes the labour rate
- Whether anyone has tested the existing slab before specifying the floor
The numbers other guides do not publish.
These are our 2026 starting rates, the same ones we quote from. They assume a sound shell, normal access and daytime working. Build your own estimate from them — then let us survey and fix the price in writing.
| Element | Unit | From |
|---|---|---|
| Turnkey fit-out, complete package | per sq ft | AED 250 |
| Landlord Cat A reinstatement | per sq ft | AED 150 |
| Strip-out and make-good | per sq m | AED 45 |
| Demolition and removal | per sq m | AED 55 |
| Gypsum partitions | per sq m | AED 110 |
| Gypsum false ceiling | per sq m | AED 85 |
| Mineral tile ceiling | per sq m | AED 75 |
| Glazed and frameless partitions | per sq m | AED 480 |
| Bespoke joinery — counters, display, storage | per linear metre | AED 1,900 |
| Doors and ironmongery, supplied and hung | per leaf | AED 1,450 |
| Painting | per sq m | AED 14 |
| LVT and vinyl plank, supplied and laid | per sq m | AED 95 |
| Floor and wall tiling, supply and fix | per sq m | AED 95 |
| Polished concrete | per sq m | AED 85 |
| Epoxy and PU resin floors | per sq m | AED 90 |
| Split or FCU air-conditioning, installed | per unit | AED 2,400 |
| Ductwork, grilles and air balancing | per zone | AED 4,500 |
| Distribution board and final circuits | per board | AED 3,500 |
| Lighting and emergency lighting, tested | per point | AED 85 |
| Data cabling | per point | AED 250 |
| Plumbing and sanitaryware | per fixture | AED 450 |
| Fire hose reel and interface works | per point | AED 2,800 |
| Signage and wayfinding | per sign | AED 350 |
| Measured survey and space plan | per unit | AED 1,500 |
| 3D visualisation | per view | AED 1,200 |
| Authority submittals and NOCs | per submission | AED 2,500 |
| Post-construction clean | per sq m | AED 12 |
All figures exclude VAT and are starting rates for 2026. Shopfront glazing, stone, terrazzo, specialist lighting and heavy display units are quoted on drawings.
A 1,200 sq ft mall unit, priced line by line.
Roughly 111 square metres. A stripped-out previous tenancy, mid-range specification, daytime working with night deliveries. This is how a real estimate is built — not from a rate per square foot, but from quantities.
| Line | Quantity | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strip-out and make-good | 111 sq m | AED 45 | AED 4,995 |
| Measured survey and space plan | 1 | AED 1,500 | AED 1,500 |
| Authority and landlord submissions | 2 | AED 2,500 | AED 5,000 |
| Gypsum partitions | 60 sq m | AED 110 | AED 6,600 |
| Gypsum false ceiling | 111 sq m | AED 85 | AED 9,435 |
| Bespoke joinery — counter, display, back-of-house | 22 lin m | AED 1,900 | AED 41,800 |
| Doors and ironmongery | 3 leaves | AED 1,450 | AED 4,350 |
| LVT flooring, supplied and laid | 111 sq m | AED 95 | AED 10,545 |
| Painting | 180 sq m | AED 14 | AED 2,520 |
| Air-conditioning — two FCUs | 2 units | AED 2,400 | AED 4,800 |
| Ductwork, grilles and balancing | 1 zone | AED 4,500 | AED 4,500 |
| Distribution board and final circuits | 1 board | AED 3,500 | AED 3,500 |
| Lighting and emergency lighting | 48 points | AED 85 | AED 4,080 |
| Data cabling | 6 points | AED 250 | AED 1,500 |
| Plumbing — back-of-house sink and WC | 3 fixtures | AED 450 | AED 1,350 |
| Fire hose reel interface | 1 point | AED 2,800 | AED 2,800 |
| Signage — fascia and internal | 3 signs | AED 350 | AED 1,050 |
| Post-construction clean | 111 sq m | AED 12 | AED 1,332 |
| Indicative total, excluding shopfront and VAT | AED 111,657 |
Roughly AED 93 per square foot for the internal works. Add the shopfront — the single largest variable in retail — and a glazed, automatic-door frontage can add AED 80,000 to AED 250,000 on its own. That is why the published ranges are so wide, and why we price the shopfront separately on drawings.
The approvals are the critical path, not the build.
In a Dubai mall the construction is rarely what delays you. The sequence of permissions is, and a contractor who has not done it before discovers that in week three.
- Landlord fit-out handbook compliance and a design submission
- Contractor registration with the mall, with insurance and licence
- Works permit, refundable deposits and a defined programme
- Strict working hours — usually nights, after trading
- Service-corridor delivery slots and lift bookings
- Hoarding to the landlord's specification before anything starts
- Dubai Municipality building and fit-out permit
- Civil Defence approval for fire detection, suppression and exits
- DEWA applications where the supply or metering changes
- Approved drawings before, and inspection sign-off after
- As-built drawings and an O&M file at handover
We handle these submissions in parallel with pricing rather than after award. On a mall unit that is normally where two to three weeks are recovered.
Bigger, lighter on joinery, heavier on services.
A showroom is not a large shop. The cost profile is different, and quoting it like a boutique produces the wrong number in both directions.
- Joinery density per square foot falls — fewer counters, more open floor
- Lighting load rises sharply; display lighting is a specification item, not a fitting
- Air-conditioning load rises with glazing area and door openings
- Floor loading matters — heavy display units, and vehicles in auto showrooms
- Floor finish is usually stone, terrazzo or polished concrete rather than LVT
- Slab condition, level and moisture before any floor is specified
- Existing electrical capacity against the lighting design
- Fresh-air provision against the glazed frontage
- Whether the frontage is structural, and who owns it
- Access for delivery of large display units after handover
What four to six weeks actually looks like.
| Stage | Typical duration | Runs in parallel with |
|---|---|---|
| Survey, space plan and pricing | 3–5 days | Landlord handbook review |
| Design approval and authority submission | 2–4 weeks | Long-lead joinery and shopfront ordering |
| Strip-out and make-good | 3–5 days | Material delivery scheduling |
| First fix — partitions, MEP containment | 1 week | Joinery manufacture off site |
| Ceilings, second fix MEP, flooring | 1–2 weeks | Shopfront fabrication |
| Joinery installation and painting | 1 week | Signage production |
| Testing, inspection and sign-off | 3–5 days | Snagging |
| Clean and handover | 1–2 days | As-built and O&M file |
Approvals are the variable. Everything else is reasonably predictable once drawings are fixed.
Interior and commercial fit-out
Office renovation in occupied premises
Specialist and commercial flooring
Common questions.
How much does a shop fit-out cost in Dubai?
Published market ranges run from roughly AED 350 to AED 1,800 per square foot, which is so wide it tells you almost nothing. The honest answer is that a shop is not priced per square foot — it is priced per element. A 1,200 sq ft unit with a simple shopfront, painted walls and LVT might land near AED 240,000; the same unit with a glazed shopfront, dense joinery and a feature ceiling can pass AED 600,000. The rate card on this page lets you build your own number before you speak to anyone.
Why do you publish rates when nobody else does?
Because a range is not a quotation and everybody knows it. We would rather you priced your own shell from our actual rates, found the number credible, and called us already knowing roughly what it costs. It also means the conversation starts at scope rather than at haggling.
How long does a retail fit-out take?
A straightforward 1,000 to 1,500 sq ft unit is four to six weeks on site once approvals are in hand. The approvals themselves — landlord, Dubai Municipality, Civil Defence — usually take longer than the building, and in a mall they are the critical path. We survey, price and submit in parallel rather than in sequence, which is normally where weeks are recovered.
Do you handle mall landlord approvals?
Yes. Mall units bring a second rulebook on top of the authorities — the landlord's fit-out handbook, a design submission, a contractor registration, a works permit, deposits and strict night-working hours. We handle the submissions and the permits as part of the package. It is the single most common reason a retail programme slips.
What is the difference between a shop and a showroom fit-out?
Mostly services and floor loading. A showroom is usually larger, lower in joinery density per square foot and higher in lighting and air-conditioning load, and it often carries heavy display units or vehicles that the floor has to take. Per square foot a showroom frequently costs less than a small boutique; in total it costs more because there is more of it.
Can you work while the unit next door is trading?
Yes, and in a mall you have no choice. Hoarding, dust containment, agreed noise windows, night deliveries through the service corridor and a clean handover each morning. Roughly half of what we have delivered has been executed in premises that stayed open, including government hospitals under infection-control protocols.
Send us the unit size and we will price it properly.
Floor area, whether it is a bare shell or a previous tenancy, and the mall if there is one. We survey, price from the rates on this page, and fix the figure in writing before anything starts.