Kitchen conversions
A partition and a door between the kitchen and the living room is a small build with a real approval question. We check what your building allows, then have the wall priced as a line of its own.
The conversion
Closed kitchen apartments in Dubai can be made as well as bought. None of the Dubai community rules quoted below, from Emaar, Dubai Holding, Town Square and Tilal Al Ghaf, bans a new kitchen wall outright, though some limit where it can stand and what it may cover. The build itself is small: a partition, a door, some electrical changes and the making good. The approvals decide how long it takes and what it costs, so this page starts with them.
How much does an open to closed kitchen conversion cost in Dubai?
The closest published frame is the kitchen band: ASM Interiors puts a kitchen inside a Dubai apartment renovation at AED 15,000 to 80,000, and its basic tier for a whole one or two-bedroom unit also starts at AED 15,000. No band on our price guides prices a partition on its own, so ask for the wall, the door, the electrical changes and the making good as separate lines. In Emaar towers the NOC costs AED 1,000 for minor or 2,000 for major works, and the AED 500 review fee counts toward that sum. The apartment price guide has the other bands.
Emaar's home modifications factsheet lists three things owners may not do in its apartments: structural works or removal of walls, removal of existing tiles, and removal, relocation or coverage of MEP and fire-fighting systems. A new partition is none of those by itself, so closing a kitchen goes in as an NOC application through Home Modifications on the community portal, with a 3 business day turnaround once the file is complete. The third rule is the one to plan around. A wall that would box in a sprinkler pipe, a drain or an air-conditioning duct, or force one to move, is exactly the work Emaar lists as not permissible. Burj Khalifa apartments sit outside the standard NOC service altogether.
Dubai Holding Community Management treats any alteration, structural or not, as needing an application, which the owner raises on the community app with at least 24 hours' notice, or 72 hours' notice by email. A partition inside the unit matches its definition of a minor modification: non-structural work that leaves the structure, the façade and the common areas alone. Minor works lasting more than a day run on a minor modifications permit valid for up to seven days. Nakheel's online services list the matching request as Request For An Apartment Modification.
Town Square answers the question in reverse. Its manuals make breaking, removing or opening interior walls a townhouse-only alteration, and a new wall appears on none of the published lists, so ask Nshama in writing before anyone prices one. If the conversion also moves the counters, that part moves into the major tier: AED 2,000, an AED 5,000 deposit on top, and 5 working days. Replacing the cabinets alone is minor, at AED 1,000 and 2 working days, and a readymade island sits in the AED 160 home improvement tier.
Tilal Al Ghaf needs the master developer's written consent before any improvement or addition. Its fee schedule charges AED 5,000 plus AED 250 VAT to review alteration and home-improvement plans, and its community rules want 48 hours' written notice, the contractors' details and a work permit before anything starts.
| Manager | Where it is applied for | Published fee or timing | Rule that shapes the wall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emaar Community Management | Home Modifications, community portal | Minor works AED 1,000, major AED 2,000; 3 business days | Services may not be boxed in or moved |
| Dubai Holding Community Management | Community app, 24 hours ahead | Minor modifications permit, up to 7 days | Any alteration needs an application |
| Nshama, Town Square | Nshama community portal | Moving counters: AED 2,000 plus AED 5,000 deposit | Opening walls is townhouse-only |
| Majid Al Futtaim, Tilal Al Ghaf | Master developer's written consent | AED 5,000 plus AED 250 VAT plan review | 48 hours' notice and a work permit |
The building's consent is half the file; the plot's regulator holds the other half. On Dubai Municipality land, a unit of up to 100 m² can take décor work with no building permit if an accredited contractor does it, and above that size the contractor self-permits through Dubai BPS, as long as no built-up area is added, merged or split. A wall that touches the structure leaves that route and becomes a modifications transaction filed by an accredited consultant. Ask the contractor, in writing, which route the partition takes; the Dubai rules page has the exemptions in full.
The Dubai Development Authority publishes the clearest line on partitions. Its Circular 318 of 2019 exempts low-height partitions from the fit-out permit when the opening above them is at least 15 percent of the height from finished floor to finished ceiling, and Circular 338 exempts units of 100 m² or less. A full-height kitchen wall in a larger unit in a DDA-regulated building fits neither exemption, so the contractor files a fit-out permit: AED 0.90 per square foot, minimum AED 200, delivered in 2 working days.
On Palm Jumeirah and the other communities where Trakhees is the authority, its procedure requires a Modification Permit for any modification or fit-out work in a completed building, issued before the work starts.
Mostly, what is already in the ceiling and under the floor. Emaar's services rule, quoted above, is the written version of it, and the list of what can be in the way is short: sprinkler lines, detectors, air-conditioning supply and return, drains and sockets. A partition drawn straight through one of them has to move, or it stops being a partition and becomes a services job with approvals of its own.
A closed kitchen also needs its own air and its own cooling. If the air-conditioning outlet or the return sits on the living-room side of the new wall, the kitchen loses it, and in an Emaar apartment moving ducts to fix that runs into the rule against relocating MEP. Settle the cooling and the cooker hood, extracting or recirculating, before the wall is drawn. A partition that stops short of the ceiling keeps air moving between the two rooms.
Going the other way is harder, because it means taking a wall out. Emaar lists wall removal among the works that are not permissible in its apartments. Town Square allows interior walls to be broken, removed or opened in townhouses only. In Dubai Holding communities the change needs an application like any other alteration. If the wall turns out to be structural, the authority side changes as well: on Dubai Municipality land the job becomes specialised maintenance, a modifications transaction filed by an accredited consultant and approved by the Building Control Department before a completion certificate issues, and in Trakhees communities it needs a Modification Permit.
Ask for the building's approved drawings before anyone quotes a removal. They show whether the wall carries load and what runs inside it, and every rule above turns on those two answers.
A new kitchen wall changes the interior spaces, which is exactly what Abu Dhabi's maintenance permit excludes in its own wording. Two routes fit instead: DMT's building permit for internal or external modifications without additions, filed only by a design consultant, with a service time of 10 working days, or, for non-structural work, DMT's minor-works procedure of 29 August 2025, which lets the contractor secure approval directly. Tasareeh, which reviews permits for plots in Aldar's scope, charges AED 600 just to register a project of that kind. In Aldar-managed towers the work also needs the Owners Union Director's written approval before it starts, and the page on Abu Dhabi towers covers the rest.
In Sharjah, modification projects are filed by a Municipality-accredited engineering consultancy through the Approval Engineering Drawings e-service, and Municipality engineers price each one. Ask an accredited consultancy whether the new wall counts as a modification before the contractor prices it. The residential maintenance permit and its deposit are on our Sharjah page.
Ajman's maintenance permit costs AED 1,000 and is open to owners. Its document list adds a supervising consultant's contract and architectural plans whenever the work includes modifications, and a new kitchen wall is exactly that. A structural change is a different service, 3283, priced at AED 200 and addressed to businesses running construction projects. Ajman permit fees lists the rest.
That breakdown is what we ask every contractor for, before any quote gets to you. If the kitchen is being replaced at the same time, Corvana Kitchen handles it as its own project, and if the conversion is one part of a wider job, the whole apartment can go on a single brief. The new wall will need paint too, and the painting rules are lighter.
Options
A partition to the ceiling with a hinged, sliding or pocket door. The most private option, and the one most likely to run into a sprinkler line, a detector or a duct, so it starts with a look at the ceiling.
A glazed partition or sliding panels that close the kitchen while cooking and open it afterwards. Daylight still reaches the kitchen, and the build is lighter than a solid wall.
The partition goes in while the kitchen is being replaced, so the services, the lighting and the finishes are planned once. Published kitchen figures inside Dubai apartment renovations run from AED 15,000 to 80,000.
from AED 15,000
How it works
Sprinklers, detectors, ducts and drains decide where a wall can stand, so the brief starts with the ceiling and the floor, not with the design.
Emaar, Dubai Holding, Nshama or the Owners Union: the building's written answer comes before anyone pays for a drawing.
Licensed contractors price the wall, the door, the services and the making good as separate lines, against the same brief.
The contract is between you and the contractor, and the quote you sign already names the approvals it assumes and who files each one.
Common questions: How to Close an Open Kitchen in a Dubai Apartment: Step by Step.
Questions
Tower, community, a photo or plan of the kitchen and where the wall should go. We come back with contractors who price the wall, the door and the services as separate lines.