Office Fit-Out Cost Per Square Foot in Dubai: CAT A vs CAT B
Office fit out cost in Dubai runs between AED 120 and AED 450 per square foot for CAT B work, and AED 60 to AED 150 per square foot for CAT A. Which of those two numbers applies to you depends on the state of the unit you’re leasing and on what your landlord has already built. Most tenants in Dubai lease a CAT A shell, then carry the full CAT B cost themselves. For a 5,000 sqft office that means roughly AED 600,000 to AED 2.25 million before furniture and licences.
What CAT A actually covers
CAT A describes the base building the landlord hands over: raised floors, suspended ceilings with basic lighting, air conditioning, electrical supply to the floor, fire detection and sprinklers, and the toilets. it’s a working shell, not an office. You get bare plaster, a grid of lights every 2.4 metres and no partitions.
Developers in Business Bay, DIFC and Jumeirah Lakes Towers hand over CAT A as standard on new stock. Landlords of older buildings sometimes offer a CAT A-plus handover, which adds lighting upgrades and a painted finish. Ask for the handover schedule in writing before you sign anything, because CAT A plus in one building is bare CAT A in another.
What CAT B adds, and why it costs more
CAT B turns the shell into your office: partitioning and glass fronts, meeting rooms, reception, joinery, kitchenette, flooring finishes, doors and frames, extra sockets, data cabling, acoustic ceilings in meeting rooms, and all design and authority approvals. The spread from AED 120 to AED 450 per square foot comes from three decisions: partition density, joinery quantity and flooring spec.
A trading office with an open plan and two meeting rooms lands around AED 120 to AED 180 per square foot. A law firm with heavy cellular offices sits nearer AED 250 to AED 350. A DIFC client floor with a stone reception, custom joinery and AV built into every meeting room passes AED 400. Joinery is usually the single biggest swing item, and we plan it early because shop drawings have lead times of six to eight weeks before site work can start.
The square foot rates in the middle of the market
For budgeting a typical professional office in Dubai in 2026, use these ranges:
- CAT A works (if your unit needs them): AED 60 to AED 150 per sqft
- CAT B, open plan, standard finishes: AED 120 to AED 180 per sqft
- CAT B, medium spec with cellular offices: AED 180 to AED 280 per sqft
- CAT B, high spec with heavy joinery: AED 280 to AED 450 per sqft
- Furniture, fittings and equipment (FF&E): AED 80 to AED 250 per sqft on top
- Authority approvals and permits: AED 15 to AED 40 per sqft as a rule of thumb, set by the authority, not the contractor
A 10,000 sqft office at medium spec so budgets between AED 2.2 million and AED 3.4 million for the fit-out itself, plus FF&E and permits. If a quote lands far under that, read the exclusions before you celebrate. We wrote about how exclusions decide the comparison when comparing renovation quotes in Dubai, and the same logic applies to office tenders.
Where the money actually goes
On a medium-spec CAT B project, the rough split is: MEP works 25 to 30 percent, partitions and doors 15 to 20 percent, ceilings and flooring 15 percent, joinery 15 to 25 percent, painting and finishing 5 percent, design and approvals 5 to 10 percent, and preliminaries and logistics 5 to 10 percent. Logistics matter more in Dubai offices than most tenants expect: tower delivery windows, lift bookings and out-of-hours work rules all add cost in buildings with strict facility management.
A few line items people forget: DEWA activation and any load upgrade, which can take weeks; fire compliance and Civil Defence approval if you add a kitchenette or change occupancy; access control and IT cabling, usually quoted separately by a specialist; and reinstatement at lease end. Your lease will require you to return the unit to CAT A condition when you leave, and that cost belongs in your long-term budget, not as a surprise in year five.
CAT A vs CAT B when the landlord offers a fit-out contribution
Many Dubai landlords offer a rent-free period or a fit-out contribution for a five-year lease, commonly AED 50 to AED 100 per square foot on prime stock. That money applies only to CAT B works in most agreements, and it usually arrives as a rent offset rather than cash into your fit-out account. Read the clause for the definition of qualifying works, because landlords often exclude furniture, IT and anything removable with a screwdriver.
The decision order matters here. Fix the space plan first, then the specification, then the tender. Changing the layout after joinery is ordered costs money twice. The same sequencing discipline we describe in the five decisions that rewrite a Dubai fit-out budget applies to offices, and layout decisions there move six-figure sums.
Approvals and programme
An office fit-out in Dubai needs approvals from the authority that governs your building: Dubai Municipality for most areas, Trakhees for Palm and Nakheel land, DDA in TECOM free zones such as Internet City and Media City, and the DIFC has its own route. Expect two to six weeks for permits on straightforward projects, longer if MEP drawings are incomplete. Civil Defence review applies to most offices with modified fire systems. Add two to four weeks of authority time at the start of your programme, because site work can’t legally start before permits issue.
A 5,000 sqft medium-spec office typically runs 10 to 14 weeks from design start to handover, split as four to six weeks of design and approvals and six to eight weeks of site work. Snagging and authority completion inspections sit at the end, and cutting them is a false economy. The handover discipline we set out for snag lists, retention and sign-off was written for exactly this stage.
Three checks before you accept any rate
First, ask whether the rate includes MEP point loads and data cabling, because those get excluded often. Second, ask for the partition rate per linear metre,. Third, confirm who carries authority fees, insurance and the facility management deposits. A contractor who won’t itemise these won’t hold the budget either.
If you’re weighing whether to hire a designer, a contractor or a single design-and-build firm, we compared the contractor, designer and design-and-build routes for Dubai projects in an earlier post. For offices above about 3,000 sqft, one accountable party usually saves more than it costs.
If you want a worked budget for a specific unit, bring the floor plan and the handover schedule to a consultation and we’ll price it properly against current contractor rates.
