Apartment painting
Dubai Municipality counts an interior repaint as basic maintenance, so there is no permit to chase. The building still controls the crew's access, its working hours and any colour that shows from outside. We brief painters with those rules attached.
Painting
An apartment painting service in Dubai is the lightest job a tower lets a contractor do. Dubai Municipality's Administrative Resolution No. (109) of 2022 puts interior and exterior painting among basic maintenance works, which need neither a permit nor a completion certificate. One condition survives the exemption: the painter must be a contractor the Municipality has pre-qualified. The rest is mostly the building's call, from the crew's entry pass to the colour of anything visible from the street.
How much does apartment painting cost in Dubai?
The one published apartment band that names painting starts at AED 15,000: ASM Interiors prices a basic renovation of a one or two-bedroom unit at AED 15,000 to 40,000 and lists painting, flooring and minor fixes as its scope. The other bands on our price guide are whole-unit figures, so a painting-only quote has to be read line by line: area, coats, paint and preparation. A repaint quoted close to AED 15,000 costs what that list charges for new floors and repairs as well. The price guide carries every apartment band with its source.
Painting is priced by area and by effort, and a single total hides both. Ask every painter for the same six lines below. Two quotes built that way can be laid side by side, and the gaps between them start to mean something.
In Emaar towers the answer is written down. The home modifications factsheet lists internal painting among the works that need no NOC, and then requires an entry permit for every contractor, NOC or not. Registration for that permit happens on ecmpermits.ae, and it asks the painting firm for its trade licence plus copies of its manager's passport, visa page and Emirates ID.
Dubai Holding Community Management, which runs the Nakheel and Dubai Properties communities, says in its FAQ that internal painting needs no permit. Its 2026 rulebook reads stricter on paper: clause 8.1.1 names painting in the list of alterations that need an application, outside maintenance and repair. A repaint of the unit's own walls is maintenance. Paint that changes the façade is not, and clause 8.2.4 puts any façade modification behind the manager's prior written approval.
On the Nakheel side, the contractor access guide files painting under planned maintenance, which runs on a daily permit: the contractor's trade licence, an Emirates ID or visa, and the owner's letter of appointment. Daily passes cost nothing and are issued within minutes. A longer permit covers up to three days.
Town Square puts a price on it. Nshama's alteration tiers place interior repainting and wallpaper in the home improvement tier at AED 160, the painter's vehicle needs an access pass that starts at AED 160 for one month, and every contractor vehicle carries its work permit on display. No workers may stay on site overnight.
In buildings the Dubai Development Authority regulates, Circular 318 of 2019 takes all internal painting out of the fit-out permit. The job goes ahead on the NOC or permit to work that the landlord or the facilities manager issues.
| Authority or manager | What painting triggers | Published fee in AED |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai Municipality, mainland | Basic maintenance: no permit, pre-qualified contractor only | None |
| Emaar Community Management | Internal painting: no NOC, contractor entry permit | None for the NOC |
| Emaar Community Management | External painting NOC, 2 business days | AED 100 |
| Dubai Holding Community Management | Internal painting: no permit, per its FAQ | None |
| Nakheel-side communities | Daily contractor permit for planned maintenance | Free |
| Nshama, Town Square | Interior repainting and wallpaper, home improvement tier | AED 160 |
| Ajman Municipality | Maintenance permit; plans added for exterior paintwork | AED 1,000 |
| Tasareeh, Aldar-scope plots in Abu Dhabi | Building maintenance permit, where one is needed | AED 2,000 |
The freedom ends at the façade. Resolution 109 requires exterior façade colours to be ones Dubai Municipality authorises, and its maintenance circular of 2022 gives white and sand or beige as examples of the permitted tones. Town Square's manual is blunter for its own buildings: external paint must match the building's existing palette, and no change to the colour scheme is permitted. Dubai Holding asks for external walls to be repainted in the unit's existing colours unless it approves otherwise.
Emaar prices an external painting NOC at AED 100 and processes it in 2 business days. If a wall you plan to paint can be seen from outside, a balcony or terrace included, ask the manager which rule applies before buying the paint. Outdoor paintwork also falls under the summer rule: from 15 June to 15 September, work in direct sun and open places stops between 12:30 and 3 PM.
Brushes and rollers are quiet. Sanders, drills and scrapers are not, and the building's noise windows decide when they run. In Emaar's apartment towers the 2026 rules confine power tools to two windows, 9 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 5 PM, inside a contractor day that runs 8 AM to 5 PM and stops on Sundays and public holidays. Dubai Holding's minor-works clause allows 8 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Saturday. Town Square works business days only, 9 AM to 5 PM. The full hours table sets each rulebook side by side.
A contractor the Municipality has pre-qualified, even for a job that needs no permit. Resolution 109 makes that the first condition of every basic maintenance job, and anyone can look a firm up on the Municipality's register at deqsmart.dm.gov.ae or in the Dubai BPS app before hiring it. In the Municipality's classification, Building Maintenance and Interior Decoration are secondary activities that sit beside a main contracting activity, so ask which of the two the painter's licence carries.
The buildings police their contractors as well. Under the ecmpermits.ae terms, a painter who misuses an NOC or keeps breaking the rules risks an AED 5,000 fine and a ban across Emaar's communities. Town Square turns away contractors without proper hoardings or safety equipment, and bans a company whose crew enters without a permit.
Renting? Get the owner's approval in writing before booking anyone. Dubai Municipality's décor circular already makes it a condition of décor work a tenant commissions, and the renovation hub's guide for tenants covers the lease side.
Apartment painting in Abu Dhabi counts as interior finishes and general maintenance, two of the minor works that the Department of Municipalities and Transport lets contractors approve directly under its procedure of 29 August 2025. Where a maintenance permit is needed, the contractor files it. On plots in Tasareeh's scope, Aldar's delegated permit reviewer publishes AED 2,000 for a building maintenance permit. Aldar's handbooks bar alterations, additions or renovations without the Owners Union Director's prior written approval, so a repaint in an Aldar-managed tower starts with a question to the Owners Union. The Abu Dhabi page covers the tower rules.
Sharjah's route for residential renovation is a maintenance permit from the Municipality's Inspection and Follow-up Section, with a deposit that comes back once the site is clean and the contractor has no open violations. Neither the fee nor the deposit is published, so a Sharjah painting quote should say whether the job needs the permit and who pays for it. More on Sharjah permits.
Ajman's maintenance permit is a published AED 1,000, and owners can apply for it themselves with UAE PASS. Its document list adds architectural plans in two cases only, modifications and exterior paintwork, so an interior repaint keeps the shorter file: the owner's ID, the site plan, the maintenance contract and the plan approvals. The Ajman fees are all published.
A repaint can also be the last line of a bigger job. Our apartment service prices a whole unit against the published bands, and an open kitchen can be closed off in the same programme: see kitchen conversions. A villa, exterior included, runs on different rules, set out under villa painting.
Scope
Walls and ceilings brought back to the colours they have now. Basic maintenance under Dubai Municipality's rules, no NOC in Emaar towers, and an entry or daily permit for the crew.
New colours, a feature wall or wallpaper in the rooms themselves. Inside the unit it is still maintenance, and Town Square prices interior repainting and wallpaper as a home improvement at AED 160.
Paint, new floors within what the building permits, and minor fixes in one job. This is the one published apartment tier that names painting, from ASM Interiors, for a one or two-bedroom unit.
from AED 15,000
How it works
Rooms, walls, ceilings, and any doors or frames. The area is the number every price is built on, so it goes into the brief before anyone quotes.
Entry permit, daily pass or a home improvement tier: we confirm what your community asks for, and whether any surface faces outside.
Licensed painters who work in your community get the same written brief, and each prices the area, the coats, the paint and the preparation as separate lines.
You choose the painter and sign with them. The quote you sign names the working windows and the protection for the corridor and the lift.
Common questions: Building Management NOC in Dubai: Fees, Deposits, Timelines.
Questions
Community, unit size, which rooms and whether the colours change. We come back with painters who price the area, the coats, the paint and the preparation as separate lines.