UAE apartment renovation
We renovate apartments across Dubai and the UAE and handle your building's approval. Tell us the flat and what you want changed on WhatsApp, and we come back with a price.
The numbers
Apartment renovation Dubai prices are published by the companies that do the work, by finish tier, by unit size and by the square foot, and every figure below names its publisher and the month we collected it. What a price list never shows is the other half of an apartment job: what your building will let a contractor touch.
What does an apartment renovation cost in Dubai?
A basic refresh of a one or two-bedroom apartment in Dubai, meaning painting, flooring and minor fixes, starts at about AED 15,000 in the band one UAE company publishes, which runs to AED 40,000. The same company puts mid-range work at AED 40,000 to 120,000 and a full luxury renovation at AED 120,000 to 350,000 and above. By size, published totals start at AED 18,000 for a studio. The cost guide lists every band with its publisher and date.
Three kinds of figure are in circulation: tiered bands for one and two-bedroom units, totals by unit size, and rates by area. We read each one on the publisher's own page on 18 September 2026. None of them is our price. They are what the market says about itself, which makes them the fastest test of whether a quote sits in range.
| Scope or unit | What the figure covers | Published band in AED |
|---|---|---|
| Basic renovation, 1 to 2 bedrooms | Painting, flooring and minor fixes | AED 15,000 to 40,000 |
| Mid-range renovation, 1 to 2 bedrooms | The same company's middle tier | AED 40,000 to 120,000 |
| Full luxury renovation, 1 to 2 bedrooms | The same company's top tier | AED 120,000 to 350,000 and above |
| Studio | Whole unit, one company's directional range | AED 18,000 to 60,000 |
| Three bedrooms | Whole unit, the same directional range | AED 90,000 to 350,000 |
| Per square foot | Two companies' published rates, all finish levels | AED 80 to 500 and above per sq ft |
Read the last row before the totals. The company behind the studio and three-bedroom rows publishes its rates per square metre instead, AED 450 to 2,200 and above, and a square metre holds 10.76 square feet. Set a per-metre rate beside a per-foot quote without converting it and the comparison is out by a factor of about eleven. Ask every contractor which unit the rate uses, and which area it was multiplied by.
Finish level decides most of it. The rest comes from the building, which is how two identical two-bedroom units in different towers can end up priced apart.
Two approval systems sit on every Dubai apartment, and neither mentions the other. Dubai Municipality regulates the work. Under its Circular 3-12-1 of 2022, painting, new floors, doors, suspended ceilings and upkeep of the electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning works need no permit, as long as a contractor accredited with the Municipality carries them out. Under Circular 3-8-1 of 2021, décor inside a unit of 100 m² or less needs no building permit, and in a larger unit the accredited contractor self-permits it online. What a repaint still needs from the building is set out under apartment painting.
The building regulates everything else: what may be touched, when, and by whom. That consent comes from the owners association or the master developer's community manager. It is a private approval under the community's own rules, which is why no municipality checklist names it. Emaar takes applications through the Home Modifications section of its community portal, Dubai Holding Community Management through its community app at least 24 hours ahead, and Nakheel lists a service called Request For An Apartment Modification. Our page on each Dubai route sets out the fees and hours manager by manager.
We ask contractors for that shape before a quote reaches you. If you would rather check the numbers yourself first, the apartment price bands carry each source and the date we read it.
Scope
Paint, flooring laid to the building's rules, doors and minor fixes in a one or two-bedroom unit. In Dubai this is simple maintenance: no municipality permit, but an accredited contractor, and in Emaar towers a contractor entry permit even when no NOC is needed.
from AED 15,000
Kitchen, bathrooms and finishes upgraded within what the building allows. This is the scope where the owners association NOC, the tiles-over-tiles rule and the fixed position of fire-fighting services start to shape the design.
from AED 40,000
The top published tier, finished to a high specification throughout. In a tower the rulebook sets limits no budget can buy past, so the design starts from what the NOC will approve.
from AED 120,000
Why Corvana
An apartment quote can be right on price and still impossible to build. The contractor prices new floor tiles and the building only allows tiles laid over the old ones. The kitchen moves across the room and the fire-fighting services cannot follow it. We read your building's published rules before we price anything, so what we quote is what your building will approve, at a rate inside the published bands. Then our team does the work.
How it works
Set your unit size and finish against the published bands and the cost guide. For many owners that settles the budget question on its own.
Tower, community, size, number of bathrooms, and whether you own or rent. A WhatsApp message is enough, and the form below works too.
One written price, with your building's rules read first: a rate, an area and a finish tier.
You approve the price and we start. The price in the quote is the price you pay, with the exclusions written out line by line.
Where we work
Every apartment answers to two rulebooks, the emirate's and the building's. The emirate decides which permit applies and who may file it. The building decides what may be touched, and when. Both change at each emirate border, and each page below leads with what that means for an apartment.
Much of an apartment refresh in Dubai needs no municipality permit at all, because Circular 3-12-1 of 2022 treats painting, floors, doors and ceilings as simple maintenance for an accredited contractor. The gate that remains is the building's NOC, and it varies by manager: Emaar, Dubai Holding Community Management, Nshama in Town Square, DIFC for its third-party towers. Dubai apartment rules sets them side by side, with their hours.
Here the permit follows the scope. Cosmetic work is a maintenance permit the contractor files through TAMM, with a service time of 7 working days; moving a wall is a building permit that only a design consultant may file. In Aldar-managed towers the Owners Union Director approves the works in writing first. Al Reem Island has sat inside ADGM's jurisdiction since April 2023, which adds ADGM's strata-title consent, but ADGM issues no building permits, so the permit still comes from DMT. Abu Dhabi apartments has the detail.
In Sharjah the permit for a home is the maintenance permit, issued by the Municipality's Inspection and Follow-up Section against a refundable deposit. Structural work is a different file: approved engineering drawings and a building permit, both submitted by a consultancy the Municipality has accredited. The décor permit that also turns up in searches covers trading shops and industrial sheds, so it is not an apartment route. The UAE government portal states that non-nationals hold a usufruct of up to 100 years rather than ownership, in areas the government designates; Alef Group advertises freehold to all nationalities at Hayyan, and no authority source reconciles the two, so your title deed or usufruct contract is the first document to read. No Sharjah developer publishes an NOC process for owners. Renovating in Sharjah covers what that leaves you to ask.
Ajman publishes its prices. The maintenance permit costs AED 1,000 with a stated duration of 2 days, and it is open to individuals as well as contracting companies, so an owner can apply directly with UAE PASS. Emirates City, a cluster of 19 registered tower projects, has no master developer: each tower has its own registered owners association manager. The Ajman permit fees are set out there in full.
An apartment renovation is mostly a kitchen, one or two bathrooms and new finishes. When only one room needs work, Corvana Kitchen and Corvana Bathroom handle it on its own. A design-led brief starts better at Corvana Interiors, villa owners have Corvana Villa, and the full index of what we track is at Corvana Renovation.
Guides: Home Renovation Services Dubai: Decide These First.
Common questions: Apartment Renovation Permit in Dubai: Which One, Who Files It, Apartment Upgrades That Add Value in Dubai: What Buildings Allow, Changing Flooring in a Leasehold Apartment: Dubai Rules, Chiller NOC for an Apartment Renovation: Empower and Tabreed, End of Lease Restoration in Dubai: What Tenants Put Back and How Long Does an Apartment Renovation Take? Dubai Timelines.
Also How Much Does It Cost to Renovate an Apartment in Dubai?, How to Close an Open Kitchen in a Dubai Apartment: Step by Step, How to Renovate an Apartment in Dubai: Approvals in Order and Moving Materials Into a Dubai High Rise: Lifts, Passes, Waste.
Comparisons: Apartment Renovation Company Dubai: One Team, One Price.
See also Kitchen Renovation Dubai and Move-Out Painting Dubai.
We read your building's rules, price the job on one written scope, and our team does the work.
Questions
Size, community, how many bathrooms and what you want changed. We come back on WhatsApp with a written price.
