UAE villa renovation
We renovate villas across Dubai and the UAE, from one room to the whole house, approvals included. Tell us what you want done on WhatsApp and we come back with a price.
The numbers
These are the villa renovation Dubai prices we check every quote against: the bands UAE companies publish, what moves them, and what a written quote has to show before you sign anything.
What does a villa renovation cost in Dubai?
A full villa renovation in Dubai starts at about AED 150,000 for a basic three-bedroom fit-out and runs past AED 1,000,000 on a large villa with structural change. A light cosmetic refresh, paint, flooring and joinery with nothing moved, starts near AED 65,000. Design and build for part of a villa starts near AED 80,000. Those are figures UAE companies publish on their own sites, each one dated and sourced. The price guide breaks them down by scope and by villa size.
Every figure in the table below is published by a company operating in the UAE, and each one is dated. We collect them because the single most common thing that goes wrong on a villa project is a homeowner who has no idea what the work is worth, meeting a contractor who does. One party in that conversation is negotiating blind.
| Scope | What it covers | Published band in AED |
|---|---|---|
| Light cosmetic refresh | Paint, new flooring, doors, joinery. Nothing structural, nothing moved. | AED 65,000 to 300,000 |
| Full villa renovation | Kitchens, bathrooms, MEP, finishes throughout. Layout may change. | AED 150,000 to 3,000,000 |
| Design and build, part of a villa | One or two rooms designed and delivered by the same firm. | AED 80,000 to 150,000 |
| Per square foot, all finish levels | The unit most contractors price in. | AED 100 to 1,200 per sq ft |
Read the last row first. Contractors quote per square foot and then multiply, which is why two firms can hand you totals three times apart for the same brief. Their rates do not differ by three. Their assumptions about your villa's size and finish do. Ask for the rate and the area on every quote and the comparison becomes possible.
Send us the villa size and scope
Four things decide where in that band a villa lands, and only one of them is taste.
| Community | Published band in AED |
|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle, Mirdif | AED 75,000 to 160,000 |
| The Springs, The Meadows, The Lakes | AED 110,000 to 220,000 |
| Arabian Ranches, Dubai Hills | AED 150,000 to 280,000 |
| Jumeirah, Umm Suqeim | AED 220,000 to 450,000 |
| Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills | AED 300,000 to 700,000 and above |
Treat that as one company's view rather than the market's, because it is. It is worth reading anyway: it tells you that a quote which ignores your community has not been thought about, and Dar Al Naseeb Engineering Consultants' community rates also put Palm Jumeirah and Emirates Hills at the top. Access, parking, permitted working hours and the developer's own rules are real costs to a contractor, and they show up in the price whether or not anyone itemises them.
A quote you can act on names the rate, the area, the finish level and what is excluded. A quote you cannot act on is a single number on a letterhead. The exclusions matter more than the inclusions: authority fees, developer NOC fees, waste removal, temporary power and the making good of anything the works damage are the five that most often arrive later as a variation.
We ask contractors for that shape before anything reaches you. If you would rather read the detail first, the cost page sets out each band with its source and the date we collected it.
Some villa projects are a single trade rather than a renovation, and each has its own page with the rules and published prices that apply: new windows, built-in wardrobes, gypsum designs, a leaking roof or smart controls. Structural jobs start from the plot rather than the finish, so an extension or a demolition begins with what the community allows. Once the work is done, yearly upkeep is priced as a contract of its own.
Scope
Paint, flooring, doors and joinery. The layout and the services stay where they are, so the programme is short and the approval path is usually the simplest one.
from AED 65,000
Kitchens, bathrooms, electrical, plumbing and air conditioning, finishes throughout, and a layout that may change. This is the job most people mean when they say renovation.
from AED 150,000
One firm designs and delivers, so there is a single point of responsibility. It suits a villa where the plan is wrong rather than tired, and it starts with drawings rather than a price.
from AED 80,000
Why Corvana
Most villa projects are decided badly in the first week. A homeowner with no idea what the work is worth meets a contractor who knows exactly, and every decision after that is made from behind. We close that gap. We track what UAE contractors publish, so we can tell you what your scope should cost before you speak to anyone. We write the brief, we put the same brief to contractors who work in your community, and we hold them to a rate, an area and a finish specification rather than a number on a letterhead. The building is carried out by licensed UAE contractors, which is where that work belongs. Getting you the right one, at the right price, is our job.
How it works
Start with the bands above and the price guide, so you know roughly where your villa sits before we talk.
Size, community, how many bathrooms, and what you want changed. A message on WhatsApp is enough; there is no form to fill in unless you prefer one.
We go through the villa with you and send one written price: a rate, an area and a finish specification, not a single number.
You approve the price, we handle the approvals and our team does the work. One contract, one point of contact.
Where we work
The single most expensive mistake on a UAE villa project is starting work that needed an approval. The approval systems differ from one emirate to the next, and a contractor licensed in one is not automatically able to file in another. Each page below sets out the authority, the permit, the developer rules and what the market charges in that emirate.
Dubai Municipality splits maintenance into tiers. Under Circular 3-12-1 of 2022, simple maintenance such as painting, changing floors, doors and suspended ceilings, and maintaining electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning works needs no permit and no completion certificate, but it must be carried out by a contractor accredited with the Municipality. Structural and specialised work goes through the Dubai Building Permits System instead. On top of that sits the developer: in Emaar communities an alteration needs a No Objection Certificate applied for through the community portal, and Emaar's published schedule sets one approval fee for minor works and a higher one for major works, with its review fee deducted from the total. Our Dubai page covers the tiers, the communities and the fees in full.
A different authority and a different portal. Building and modification approvals run through the Department of Municipalities and Transport rather than Dubai Municipality, and the master-developer layer is Aldar rather than Emaar. Contractors who work across the two emirates keep separate registrations for exactly that reason. The Abu Dhabi page has the detail.
Sharjah handles a residential renovation through a maintenance permit issued by the Municipality's Inspection and Follow-up Section, with a refundable deposit that comes back once the site is cleaned, and anything structural needs approved engineering drawings and a building permit submitted by an accredited consultancy. The décor permit people often mention is for shops and industrial units, not homes. Ownership differs too. The UAE government portal states that non-nationals hold a usufruct of up to 100 years in areas the Government of Sharjah designates, while Alef Group advertises freehold to all nationalities at Hayyan, and no authority source reconciles the two. That decides who can commission work and on what terms, so the title deed is the first thing we ask for. Our Sharjah page sets out the path.
Ajman publishes more of its fee schedule than its neighbours do. A maintenance permit is a named service with a stated fee, and it is open to individuals as well as to contracting companies, which is unusual in the UAE. Ajman does grade contractors and consultants into categories, and moving up a category is a named service at AED 200, though the categories themselves are not published. Our Ajman page explains what that means for a homeowner.
A villa project often reaches past the house itself. If the garden or the pool is part of the same programme, the same approach applies at Corvana Pools and Corvana Landscaping. If only one room is the problem, start at Corvana Kitchen Renovation or Corvana Bathroom Renovation. The full index of what we track sits at Corvana Renovation.
What it costs: Villa Extension Cost Dubai: Fees, Deposits and Build Pricing and Villa Painting Cost Dubai: Rates, Totals and Exterior Fees.
Common questions: How Long Does a Villa Renovation Take in Dubai?, How Much Does It Cost to Renovate a Villa in Dubai?, How to Phase a Villa Renovation in Dubai, Stage by Stage, Villa Renovations That Add Value in Dubai: What Buyers Check, What Is Joinery? Joinery Works in a Dubai Villa, Explained and What Is Snagging? Snag Lists for Dubai Villa Renovations.
Comparisons: Best Villa Renovation Companies in Dubai: How to Compare.
Tell us the villa and what changes. We come back with one written price, and our team does the work.
Questions
Size, community, how many bathrooms and what you want changed. We come back on WhatsApp with a written price.
