Fit Out Quote Dubai: What to Send for an Accurate Price

Key takeaways

A fit-out quote based on a floor area and a one-line brief is an estimate, not a price. How accurate it is depends on the documents behind it.
Four documents matter most: the lease or tenancy contract, the landlord or mall fit-out guidelines, shell condition drawings, and a brand or concept deck.
Seating counts, workstation numbers and material references let a contractor measure joinery and MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) quantities instead of guessing them.
An incomplete brief does not speed up the quote. The missing questions come back at the negotiation stage, where they cost more to resolve.
Lava Interiors + Fitout uses these documents to issue a turnkey fit-out quote that covers design, approvals and execution under one contract.

Why a Fit Out Quote Dubai Contractors Send Is Only as Good as Your Brief

At Lava Interiors + Fitout, we tell clients the same thing at the first conversation: to get an accurate fit out quote in Dubai, send us four things: your lease, the landlord or mall fit-out guidelines, drawings of the shell as handed over, and a brand or concept reference. Add a rough layout, your seating or workstation numbers and a few material references, and the price can be built from quantities instead of allowances.

Most enquiries arrive as "café, 120 sqm, Jumeirah, how much?" That is a fair question. The answer is a range wide enough to be close to useless. If you are comparing contractors, the documents you send decide whether you are comparing like with like, which matters just as much as knowing how to vet a fit-out contractor properly.

The difference between a budget estimate and a fixed-scope price

A budget estimate is a rate per square metre multiplied by your area. It contains provisional sums, which are placeholder amounts for anything the contractor cannot yet see. It is useful for checking feasibility before you commit to a site.

A fixed-scope price lists defined items: so many linear metres of joinery, so many lighting points, a named flooring finish, a stated number of air-conditioning grilles relocated. When the items are fixed, the number is firm, and any later change is a visible variation, not a surprise.

An accurate fit-out price in the UAE sits much closer to the second. It is built from your documents, not from the contractor's assumptions about them.

Why area in square metres alone isn't enough

Two 150 sqm units can differ in cost by a wide margin. The differences come from:

Shell condition. One unit has a screeded floor and capped services. Another needs slab work and new drainage runs.
Use. A full commercial kitchen with extraction, grease traps and gas brings MEP work that a retail unit never needs.
Landlord rules. Some malls require specific shopfront systems, approved contractors for sprinklers, or after-hours working only.
Finish level. Laminate and microcement are priced in different worlds from walnut veneer and travertine.

None of this shows up in an area figure. All of it shows up in the documents.

The Core Documents Every Fit Out Pricing Request Needs

These are the fit-out pricing documents that turn a guess into a turnkey fit-out quote. Each one answers questions a contractor would otherwise have to price as risk.

Lease or tenancy contract

The lease tells us what you are responsible for and when. Look for the fit-out period, the handover condition, any reinstatement obligations at the end of the term, and who pays for base-building upgrades.

It also feeds the permit process. In Dubai Development Authority zones, a fit-out permit application requires a copy of Ejari, a contractor appointment letter from the tenant, an NOC from the building owner, NOCs from the relevant authorities, and approved stamped drawings alongside the proposed drawings. The same page lists service fees of AED 0.90 per square foot, with a minimum of AED 200 and a maximum of AED 10,000, plus an AED 10 Knowledge Dirham and an AED 10 Innovation Dirham per transaction. With the lease in hand, we can place these costs and steps in the programme instead of leaving them out.

Landlord, mall or free zone fit-out guidelines

Every mall and most commercial landlords publish a tenant fit-out manual. It sets out shopfront heights, signage zones, approved materials, ceiling grids, working hours, insurance, security deposits and which subcontractors must be used for fire systems. Read our guide to landlord or mall fit-out guidelines for how these shape a retail project.

Without the manual, a contractor either prices the strictest possible version of these rules or prices none of them. Either way, the number is wrong.

Shell condition drawings and MEP capacity sheet

Ask your landlord for the as-built or shell drawings and the MEP capacity sheet. That sheet states the available electrical load, chilled water or cooling capacity, drainage points, gas provision and fresh-air supply.

This is where the largest hidden costs sit. A restaurant that needs more power than the unit provides may face a load upgrade. A kitchen sited far from the drainage stack needs pumped drainage or a trench. A site visit helps, but the drawings let us measure distances and loads precisely.

Brand deck or concept reference

A brand deck tells us the level of finish and the story the space has to tell. Logo, colours, typography, tone and a handful of reference images are enough. If you are earlier than that, a mood board or three spaces you admire will do.

This is what lets us tell a laminate-and-paint scope apart from a bespoke joinery scope before a single drawing exists.

Scope Documents That Sharpen the Numbers Further

The core four get you a credible quote. The following documents reduce contingency (the buffer added for unknowns) and cut the risk of variations once design starts.

Layout or space plan, even a rough one

A hand sketch on the shell drawing is enough to start with. Show where the counter, kitchen, toilets, storage, back office and seating zones should go. Position drives cost: every metre between a sink and the drainage point, and every relocated sprinkler head, is priced.

Layout matters more as projects grow. On a 2,400 sqm sports facility fit-out like Padel Addict in Dubai, the design focuses on clear circulation, durability and a clean layout that supports both training and casual play. At that scale, the plan is the scope.

Seating, cover or workstation counts

Numbers convert directly into quantities:

F&B: target covers, the split between bar, banquette and loose seating, and peak service expectations. These set kitchen size, extraction, washroom provision and furniture.
Retail: product categories, fixture types and stockroom ratio.
Office: workstations, meeting rooms by size, phone booths and collaboration zones. These drive data points, power, lighting and acoustic treatment.

Covers also decide whether a concept works commercially. A layout that loses a handful of seats to awkward circulation loses revenue every service.

Material and finish references

Name what you have in mind, even loosely: "microcement floor", "walnut veneer counter front", "lime plaster walls", "brushed bronze trims". Add photos if you have them. Each of these has a very different cost per square metre and a different lifespan in high-traffic use.

Tell us about sustainability goals too. Since COP28 was hosted in Dubai, more brands want low-VOC finishes, reclaimed timber or recycled-content surfaces. Each of those changes the specification and the supply chain.

What a Complete Brief Changes in the Quote You Get Back

A complete brief changes the structure of the quote, not just the total. Fewer allowances mean fewer moving parts once work begins, and a turnkey fit-out quote you can actually hold a contractor to.

What's missing, and what it costs you later

Lease and handover condition: What the contractor has to assume: Standard shell, no reinstatement; What it tends to cost you later: Variations for slab, ceiling or reinstatement works
Landlord or mall guidelines: What the contractor has to assume: Generic shopfront and fire systems; What it tends to cost you later: Redesign after landlord review; nominated subcontractor costs added
MEP capacity sheet: What the contractor has to assume: Adequate power, cooling and drainage; What it tends to cost you later: Load upgrades or pumped drainage priced mid-project
Brand deck: What the contractor has to assume: Mid-range finishes throughout; What it tends to cost you later: Re-pricing once the real material palette is chosen
Layout sketch: What the contractor has to assume: Typical service positions; What it tends to cost you later: MEP reroutes and lost seating once the plan is fixed
Cover or workstation count: What the contractor has to assume: Average density; What it tends to cost you later: Undersized kitchen, washrooms or data infrastructure
Material references: What the contractor has to assume: Provisional sums; What it tends to cost you later: Large gaps between quoted and final finish cost

Approvals belong in this picture too. Civil Defence clearance is a mandatory fire-safety approval needed when you sign a new lease, fit out a unit, change your trade-licence activity, or alter a layout in a way that affects fire load, exits or detection coverage. The same source lists the documents involved: your trade licence, an NOC from the building owner or management, the affection plan, the owner's passport and Emirates ID, and a technical drawing pack covering sprinkler, fire-alarm and emergency-lighting layouts prepared to the UAE Fire and Life Safety Code. For the full process, see our guide to Civil Defence approval for fit-out in Dubai.

If those documents are missing at quote stage, approval drawings and fire-system changes become an open question instead of a priced line.

How We Turn Your Documents Into a Turnkey Fit Out Quote

At Lava Interiors + Fitout, our architects, interior designers and project managers review the document set together. The result is a quote for design, approvals and execution under one contract. If you want to see where design ends and build begins, we have set out what a commercial interior design scope actually covers.

From documents to a scoped line-item quote

Document review. We check the lease, landlord manual and shell drawings for constraints, obligations and approval routes.
Site visit. We confirm shell condition, service positions and access against the drawings.
Scope definition. Your layout, counts and material references become measurable items: joinery runs, flooring areas, ceiling types, lighting points, MEP modifications.
Line-item pricing. Each item is priced individually and grouped by trade, so you can see where the money goes and adjust the specification knowingly.
Clarifications and exclusions. Anything still open is stated in writing, not buried in a provisional sum.

The approach holds across project types. For Mama's Chicken, a 210 sqm fast-casual restaurant in Dubai, the build used repurposed shipping containers with vibrant colours, industrial details and clear branding for visibility in a busy outdoor setting. A container structure, an interior unit and a mall shopfront each need different documents to price properly. That is why we ask for them early.

Where design and approvals sit inside the number

A turnkey fit-out quote from us separates design fees, authority and landlord approval work, and execution, so nothing is hidden inside a rate. Approval-related items can include permit applications, drawing packs for landlord and Civil Defence review, and close-out documents.

Close-out has its own requirements. In DDA zones, the Fit-Out Completion Certificate needs a completion request, an NOC from the tenant, the tenant's licence for the unit and a Dubai Civil Defence completion certificate. The DDA also notes that the approved fit-out permit is valid for 6 months, so the programme has to fit that window. We cannot promise an approval outcome or a fixed timeline, because both depend on the authority, the landlord and the scope. We can make sure every step is accounted for in the quote.

Your Fit Out Quote Checklist Before You Send the Enquiry

Before you ask for a fit out quote in Dubai, gather these fit-out pricing documents:

[ ]

Lease, tenancy contract or heads of terms, including the fit-out period and handover condition

[ ]

Ejari, or the date you expect to receive it

[ ]

Landlord, mall or free zone tenant fit-out manual

[ ]

Shell or as-built drawings, plus the MEP capacity sheet

[ ]

Brand deck, mood board or three reference spaces

[ ]

Rough layout sketch on the shell plan

[ ]

Target covers, fixture count or workstation numbers

[ ]

Material and finish references, with photos if possible

[ ]

Trade licence activity, or the activity you plan to license

[ ]

Target opening date and any fixed launch commitments

[ ]

Sustainability or specification requirements from your brand or landlord

If something on the list is not ready, send what you have and tell us what is missing. A clear gap is easier to price than a hidden one.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to get a fit out quote in Dubai once documents are submitted?

It depends on the size and complexity of the scope, and whether a site visit is needed to confirm shell conditions. A complete document set shortens the process because there are fewer clarification rounds. We confirm a quote timeline once we have reviewed what you have sent.

What's usually included in a turnkey fit out quote versus a design-only quote?

A design-only quote covers concept, layouts, drawings and specifications. A turnkey fit-out quote adds approvals, procurement, joinery, MEP works, finishes, lighting, furniture and project management through to handover. With turnkey, one party is accountable for the design and the build.

Can I get a fit out quote before my lease is signed?

Yes. With heads of terms and the shell drawings, we can prepare a budget estimate to test whether the unit works for your concept and budget. It will carry more allowances than a quote based on a signed lease and the landlord's fit-out manual.

Do I need landlord or mall approval before asking for a fit out price?

No. Approval comes after design, and the design is usually part of the quote. You do need the landlord's fit-out guidelines when you ask for a price, because they set the rules the design and build must follow.

What's the difference between a fit out estimate and a fixed-scope fit out quote?

An estimate is a rate applied to your floor area, with provisional sums for unknowns. A fixed-scope quote prices defined line items from your drawings, counts and material references. The second is far more reliable because changes show up as visible variations.

Send us your lease, drawings and brand deck and start your project with Lava Interiors + Fitout.