The hidden costs in a Dubai fit-out budget

An incomplete scope can cause a budget overrun. Check exclusions before comparing quotes.

The per-square-foot rates in the rates guide describe different scopes: some cover design services, while others advertise turnkey work. Ask what each quoted rate includes before adding other project costs.

Fees and approvals

• Authority permit fees. Fit-out and modification permits carry fees that scale with the works. In this corridor the authority is Trakhees / PCFC rather than Dubai Municipality for much of the area — see the Trakhees guide.
• Consultant fees. Submissions require a registered consultant, and their appointment is a fee separate from the contractor.
• Developer or landlord NOC fees. Master-developer communities charge for the no-objection certificate, and often take a refundable deposit as well.
• Owners association approval. In a tower or a managed community, approval is a separate process with its own fees and rules.
• As-built and completion documentation. A building completion certificate requires the works to match the approved drawings, and any deviation needs a revision.

Preliminaries and site costs

• Site establishment: hoarding, temporary power and water, welfare, storage, security
• Protection of common areas, lifts and finished surfaces
• Scaffolding, access platforms and mechanical handling
• Waste removal, including skips, permits and disposal charges
• Site supervision and management across the programme
• Insurance: contractors all-risk, third-party liability, and building-specific cover in towers
• Cleaning: a construction clean and then a handover clean, which are different jobs

Provisional sums and prime costs

A provisional sum is an allowance for work that has not been defined yet. A prime cost sum is an allowance for an item the client will choose later. Both are legitimate. Both are also the most common mechanism by which a fixed price becomes a larger price.

The discipline is simple: before signing, ask for every provisional sum to be either resolved into a firm price or reduced to a named allowance with a stated basis. If a quotation contains a large undefined sum for "MEP works" on a renovation, that is not a price for MEP works — it is a placeholder, and the real number will arrive as a variation.

Procurement and long-lead items

• Imported stone, custom joinery, specialist lighting and made-to-order furniture all carry lead times measured in months
• Shipping, customs duty, clearance and local delivery are frequently quoted separately from the item price
• Storage: a delivery that arrives before the site is ready has to be stored somewhere, at a cost
• Substitutions: if a specified item is unavailable, the alternative is rarely cheaper
• Damage and shortfalls: a broken tile after installation means ordering more, at a lead time, from a batch that may not match

Order samples and confirm availability before the design is frozen, not after. A finish that is out of stock in the week you need it becomes either a delay or a substitution, and both cost money.

Snagging, defects and the tail of the project

The last five per cent of a project takes a disproportionate share of the time and the money. Making good defects, obtaining the completion certificate, resolving the final account and closing out the paperwork are all real costs, and they land after the client has usually stopped expecting to spend.

Retain a percentage of the contract value until practical completion and the defects list is closed. A contractor who will not accept retention is telling you something about how the end of the job will go.

Contingency

A contingency is not optimism, it is the acknowledgement that a renovation contains unknowns until the walls are opened. The appropriate level depends on how much you know going in:

A contingency you do not spend is a saving. A saving you already spent is a variation you have to fund. Keep it separate in your own tracking, and release it only against a defined item.

Before you commit to a budget

Work through the planning and handover checklists and use the budget calculator to add these categories to the construction rate. Enter any excluded fees, preliminaries, procurement and external works yourself, then choose a contingency assumption. The calculator does not estimate these additions automatically.