If you have collected two or three quotations for the same work and they differ wildly, the usual explanation is not that someone is overcharging. It is that nobody quoted the same project.
The published rate ranges for Dubai are absurdly wide on their face. Design fees alone span AED 75 to 550 per square foot. Full turnkey work spans AED 250 to over 1,500. High-end bespoke villas reach AED 800 to 2,000 or more. Those ranges are not a sign that the market is opaque for its own sake — they reflect genuinely different scopes being described by the same words.
The words that hide scope
| Phrase | May include | May exclude |
|---|---|---|
| "Design and build" | Design, construction, coordination | Furniture, appliances, window treatments, authority fees |
| "Turnkey" | Everything needed to move in | Sometimes excludes loose furniture, art, and external works |
| "Full fit-out" | Construction and finishes | Design fees, MEP relocation, permits |
| "Renovation" | Whatever the contractor assumed | Almost anything — the vaguest term in the market |
| "Including MEP" | Distribution within the existing layout | Relocation of risers, upgraded supply, new plant |
| "Provisional sum" | An allowance | A firm price. It is an estimate that will be replaced by a real number later |
A quotation containing large provisional sums is not a cheaper quotation. It is an unfinished one. Before signing, require every provisional sum to be either resolved into a firm price or reduced to a named allowance with a stated basis.
How to make two quotes comparable
The fix is to stop asking contractors to quote your idea and start asking them to quote your document. A complete design package — drawings, elevations, joinery details, a finish schedule naming products and grades, and a specification describing the works — turns three different interpretations into three prices for one thing.
Then require each contractor to itemise the same headings:
- Preliminaries and site establishment
- Demolition and waste removal, including how waste leaves the site
- MEP scope, stating explicitly what is relocated versus reused
- Joinery: supply only or supply and install, and from whose workshop
- Finishes: supply and install, with named products and grades
- Sanitaryware and ironmongery: included or client-supplied
- Authority fees and consultant fees: included or excluded
- Every provisional sum, with its basis
- Programme duration, and the working hours assumed
- Defects liability period and retention terms
Once quotes are structured this way, differences become legible. One contractor assumed lift access and the other assumed manual carry. One included the permit fee and one did not. One priced a named tile and one priced an allowance. Those are real differences and you can decide about them; a single lump figure does not let you.
Why the cheapest quote is often the most expensive
- It has assumed the least work. The gaps surface as variations, priced after you have committed and after demolition has started.
- It may not carry the registrations and insurances the authority requires. That is discovered when the permit does not issue.
- It may assume a longer programme than you can tolerate, or a shorter one than is achievable.
- It may exclude preliminaries that are unavoidable in your building — protection, booked access, out-of-hours working.
- It may not include retention or a defects liability period, which means you have no leverage at the end.
None of this means paying more for the same thing. It means being certain about what the thing is. A complete, comparable scope makes price differences easier to assess.
And the outlier at the top
One published source puts 2026 renovation rates at AED 300-600 per square foot for light work, 600-900 for medium and 900-1,300 or more for full. Those scopes differ from the design-service and turnkey bands on this site, so compare inclusions before comparing the rates.
Usually the answer is specific and legitimate: imported stone, custom joinery from a named workshop, a designer with a reputation, a compressed programme, or a warranty and defects period longer than the market norm. If you are quoted at that level, you should be able to see which of those you are paying for. If you cannot, you are paying for the number.
Use the budget calculator to see what a given rate does to your total before you compare quotes, and read how this site handles figures for how this site treats published numbers.
- www.yallarenovation.com/post/how-much-does-interior-remodeling-cost-in-dubai
- markfitout.com/interior-design/how-much-does-an-interior-design-cost-in-dubai/
- www.euphoriainteriors.com/interior-design-fees-per-square-foot-dubai/
- pinetreelane.com/interior-design-cost-in-dubai/
- htsinteriors.com/how-much-does-a-fit-out-cost-in-dubai/
- fixitdubai.ae/house-renovation-cost-in-dubai/
