Job sheet · Dubai
Apartment renovation in Dubai: what decides the cost
An apartment is shaped by what the building permits as much as by what the owner picks. Here is what moves the number, what belongs in the quote, and how a licensed contractor turns your answers into an indicative range.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.
What moves the number
The building decides more than the floor plan does
Owners’ associations set working hours, lift bookings and the route waste takes out of the tower. A job that can only run part of the day is a longer job, and a longer job carries a different number. Before comparing two quotes, check that both assumed the same building rules.
What the building allows
Working hours, the delivery window, whether weekends are excluded and how debris leaves the floor. Every one of those is a constraint on labour, not on materials.
Wet areas over a shared slab
Moving a bathroom or a kitchen means new drainage falls and fresh waterproofing above someone else’s ceiling. Most buildings treat that as a structural change, not a finish.
Finishes tier
Porcelain or engineered stone, laminate or veneer joinery, standard or imported sanitaryware. Two quotes for one apartment usually part company here.
Access and logistics
One service lift, a booked window, a loading bay shared with the whole tower. Deliveries and debris removal both queue, and queuing is programme.
How much actually comes out
New paint and flooring is one scope. Replacing kitchens, wardrobes, doors and cooling grilles is another. The area on the title deed does not tell you which one you are buying.
What a real quote contains
Five sections, each with something behind it
The quote you can act on names what is included per section, what is excluded, the quantity each section rests on, a validity period and a payment schedule. Anything less and you are comparing two guesses. Ask both contractors to quote against the same section list.
| Section | What it covers | What the quantities rest on |
|---|---|---|
| Protection and enabling | Lift lobby and corridor protection, soft strip of finishes, waste removal inside the booked hours | Measured on site |
| Wet areas | Waterproofing and tiling to the bathrooms, sanitaryware and mixers | Client-reported count, confirmed on the visit |
| Kitchen | Cabinetry, worktop, sink and tap, appliance cut-outs | From the client’s floor plan |
| Flooring and paint | Living room, bedrooms and hallway; skirting and making good | Measured on site |
| Electrical and cooling | Lighting points, sockets, thermostat and grille replacement | Contractor measured |
Approvals for this job
The building first, then the authority
General information, not advice: every tower runs its own procedure. Your client applies, and a licensed contractor usually submits on their behalf. Briked records the scope, the version and who accepted it — it does not file applications or obtain permits.
Fit-out approval from the building
The owners’ association or the management office normally approves the works, the contractor and the schedule before anything is delivered. A refundable deposit and an insurance certificate are common conditions.
Authority: Your owners’ association
A permit for anything structural
Moving a wet area, altering a partition or touching the fire and life-safety system is licensed by the authority governing the tower — the municipality across most of Dubai, a zone authority inside its own area.
Authority: Dubai Municipality
Hours, lift and waste route
Noise windows, the service-lift booking and the debris route are set by the building rather than by your contractor. They belong in the programme before the first milestone is agreed.
Authority: Your building management
Both sides of the same apartment
One link out, a structured scope back
Your client answers on their phone, in Arabic or English, with photographs and a voice note if that is easier than typing. No app, no login, nothing to pay. What arrives on your screen is the same apartment, organised — with the building’s constraints captured beside the rooms.
Two-bedroom apartment, handed over about ten years ago.
Both bathrooms retiled and a completely new kitchen.
The building only allows works on weekdays, one lift booking a day.
Bathrooms · 2
Kitchen · full replacement
Working hours · restricted
Ceiling height and bulkheads
For contractors
How Briked structures an apartment job
Price it against your own rate card, with the building’s limits sitting in the scope rather than in your memory. Client-reported quantities stay labelled as such until you measure them, so nothing quietly becomes fact. You accept every line before the quote leaves your company.
Where each quantity came from
- Client-reported
- Measured on site
- From the client’s floor plan
What each payment is tied to
- Approvals and protection
- First fix complete
- Wet areas watertight
- Handover and snagging cleared
Read next
How the loop works, and who it is built for
The product pages walk through the link you send, the questions your client answers and the quote you send back. The persona pages are written for the trade you actually run.
How Briked does this
Who it’s for
Go deeper
General notes
An indicative range is a range, not a price. Only the quote you send your client is a price.
A person accepts every number before it leaves your company. Nothing drafted by AI becomes the record on its own.
Your client never pays for Briked. Answering your scope link, reading your quote and accepting it are free for them, always.
Your rates, your scopes and your clients stay yours. We never show one contractor’s work to another. Read the data promise
The trial runs 14 days from the day we approve your application. A card is required to start it. Trial terms
Common questions
How long does an apartment renovation take in Dubai?
The trades are rarely the constraint; the building is. Restricted hours, a single service lift and a fit-out approval that has to be issued before delivery all stretch the programme. Ask for a milestone schedule that assumes your building’s rules, not a generic one.
Do I need building approval to renovate my apartment?
Almost always. The owners’ association or the management office approves the drawings, the contractor and the schedule, usually against a refundable deposit and an insurance certificate. Anything structural also needs a permit from the authority that governs the tower.
Can I move my bathroom or my kitchen?
Sometimes, and never casually. New drainage falls and fresh waterproofing sit above the apartment below, so most buildings treat a relocation as a structural change and some refuse it outright. Get the answer in writing before it appears in a quote.
What deposit is normal for an apartment renovation?
There is no single UAE rule. Two things are worth insisting on: milestones tied to work you can see, and clarity about the building’s own refundable fit-out deposit, which is separate from anything you pay your contractor.
Why does this page not publish a cost per square foot?
Because the same area behaves differently in two towers. Working hours, lift access and whether wet areas move will shift your number more than the floor plan does. An indicative range from a contractor who has read your answers is worth more than a rate — and a range is still not a price.
Do I pay anything to use my contractor’s link?
No. Answering the questions, reading the quote and accepting it are free for you, and there is no account to create. Your contractor pays for Briked.
Scope it, quote it, get it accepted — on your next job, with your rates.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.