Interior fit out companies in Dubai: what you are actually buying

What does an interior fit out package include?

A fit out is everything that turns a bare unit into a finished home. The word package matters more than it looks. A contractor prices what is on the drawings, and nothing else. Anything you left out becomes a variation later, at a rate you no longer get to argue about.

• Builder's work such as partitions, ceilings, screeds and making good
• MEP runs for power, lighting circuits, water, drainage and any change to the AC layout
• Joinery for the kitchen, wardrobes, vanities and wall panelling
• Finishes including stone, tile, timber, paint and wallcovering
• Fixtures such as taps, sanitaryware, light fittings and door hardware
• Loose furniture and styling, but only where the scope says so, and often it does not

Shell and core, or a fitted handover

Shell and core means the developer gives you a concrete box with the building's services run to the door. No internal walls, no floor finish, capped connections. A fitted handover means a standard fit out is already in. The second sounds cheaper. It usually is not, because the first thing a designer does with a developer kitchen is take it out.

Most of the apartment work we get asked about sits in Business Bay, Downtown Dubai and Dubai Marina, where the unit arrives as a shell with a view and a rule book. Read the handover schedule in your sales agreement before anyone draws a line.

Approvals, and who is responsible for them

Fit out work here needs sign off from more than one party. The owners association issues a fit out NOC and hands your contractor the building rules: work hours, lift bookings, protection of common areas, waste removal. Dubai Municipality permits the work. DEWA covers power and water. Anything touching fire detection or sprinklers goes past Civil Defence, and in some communities the authority is Trakhees rather than the municipality.

Your contractor lodges all of it. So when you compare interior fit out contractors in Dubai, their approvals record in your specific building matters more than the photographs in their showroom.

How long does a Dubai fit out take?

Longer than the programme you were shown, and usually because of sequence rather than slow labour. Services go in before ceilings close. Ceilings close before joinery arrives. Stone can only be templated once the carcasses are standing, so the benchtop cannot be cut early to buy back a week. Joinery is normally the long item, and much of it is made in workshops out in Al Quoz while the site is still wet. Imported furniture and specialist lighting add shipping on top of that.

The other thing that moves the programme is you. A client who takes three weeks to choose a tile has spent three weeks.

How much does a fit out cost in Dubai?

Contractors quote a rate per square foot, and on its own that number tells you almost nothing. An office fit out and a villa fit out at the same rate are not the same job. Ask what sits inside the rate, what has been listed as a provisional sum, and what has been excluded. Two quotes are only comparable when they are priced off the same drawing set.

How Luxxe works with a contractor here

Plainly: we design from the Gold Coast. There is no Luxxe office in Dubai, no staff in the UAE, and no completed Dubai project on our list. What travels is the documentation.

You get 3D renders and virtual reality walkthroughs, so the home is resolved before anyone prices it. Then a full drawing set a local contractor can build from: plans, elevations, joinery details, finishes schedule, lighting and switching layout. We coordinate with your contractor and the local trades through the build. Luxxe delivered the interiors of Duddingston House, the Category A listed Palladian mansion in Edinburgh designed by Sir William Chambers in the 1760s. Working outside Australia is not new for the studio.

What to ask before you sign

Search for a top 10 list of fit out companies in Dubai and you get listicles, most of them written by fit out companies. Interior fit out companies in Dubai mostly sell design and build, sometimes labelled turnkey interior fit out: one price for the drawing and the building together. It is convenient. It also removes the thing that protects you, which is an independent drawing set you can send to three firms and compare line by line. When the same firm draws and builds, a cheaper substitute never appears as a change.

There is no single best interior fit out company in Dubai, whatever the rankings say. There is the firm that has worked in your building, holds the right trade licence, and will price your drawings without rewriting them.

Snagging is the last leverage you have. Keep a retention until the list is clear, and walk the unit yourself with the drawings in your hand.

• Ask which drawing set the price is based on, and check the revision number
• Ask what has been excluded, in writing
• Ask who lodges the approvals, and who carries the cost if one is refused
• Ask which trades are in house and which are subcontracted
• Ask how snagging is run, how long the defects liability lasts, and what is held back until it closes
• Ask for payments tied to milestones on site, not to dates on a calendar