Villa renovation in Ajman, fee by fee

Most of what a villa renovation in Ajman costs to approve is published in advance by the Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, which regulates the work: a named service for each kind of job, the fee for each, and a stated time. Applications go in online with UAE PASS, and fees are paid through the AjmanOne app.

Ajman's published fee schedule for villa work

These are the Municipality's own figures from the Ajman government service catalogue, collected on 18 September 2026.

The modification request is the cheapest line and the one an owner cannot file alone: the catalogue addresses it to businesses undertaking construction, and it needs approved drawings plus sign-off from Etihad Water and Electricity, Etisalat and the Ajman Sewerage Company. Civil Defence approval is listed too, except for residential and agricultural buildings.

Send us the scope and the plot

Who can file in Ajman?

Unlike in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, an owner in Ajman can hold the maintenance permit personally. Its published audience is contracting companies and individuals, and its document list starts with the building owner's ID. The same list shows where a small job grows: a supervising consultant's contract once anything is modified, architectural plans once the exterior is painted or altered, Civil Defence and Health Department approval of the plans, and a site inspection before the permit is issued.

Contractors and consultants need the Municipality's professional practice accreditation, AED 200 and 2 days, which asks for an up-to-date employee disclosure, a Society of Engineers card and the office's size in square metres. Firms are graded into categories as well, with an upgrade sold as its own AED 200 service, though Ajman does not publish the categories themselves. Licensed trades are close at hand: building maintenance is the most common licensed activity in each of the Al Rawda, Al Mowaihat, Al Yasmeen and Al Helio districts, with at least 314 such licences in Al Rawda 2 alone.

What does an extension or a new floor add?

An addition to an existing villa is its own service, the Permit to Construct an Addition to an Existing Building, on the building-permit schedule: AED 3.5 per m² with an AED 200 minimum, a refundable insurance of AED 2 per m², and 5 days. It needs approvals from Etihad Water and Electricity, Etisalat and the Ajman Sewerage Company. A full extra floor or roof is priced another way, as 5 percent of the land value multiplied by the floor area it adds over the total floor area permitted before it.

Concrete on any addition is checked before it is poured. The structural audit, 2 days, approves foundations, ground beams and slabs, with concrete cube test reports at 7 or 28 days. Permits issued before 2017 also need a structural inspection report before they can be renewed.

What does Ajman ask for at completion?

A completion certificate for a residential villa costs AED 500 and takes 2 days, and its document list is the most Ajman-specific part of the process: a roof waterproofing warranty from the contractor, a Makani number from the Department of Spatial Information Systems, a security-specifications certificate from Ajman Police, a preventive-safety letter from Civil Defence, clearance from the Department of Roads and Infrastructure, and the telecom provider's completion certificate. Refundable deposits, on maintenance permits among others, come back within 7 days by bank transfer or cheque.

Villa renovation in Ajman: plots, owners and developers

Much of Ajman is built plot by plot. The land department's register of developer projects has no entry for Al Rawda 1 to 3, Al Mowaihat 1 to 3 or Al Helio 1 and 2: land there is sold as plots and built by its owners, with no developer layer above the Municipality. Al Helio is where that market moves fastest. Al Helio 2 recorded 2,825 land sales in 2025, the largest movement of any district in the land department's sales data.

Al Zorah

Al Zorah is different: it has a master developer, Al Zorah Development, incorporated in 2007 as a joint venture of the Government of Ajman and Solidere International, which states that foreigners may own 100 percent of their property there. Its villa neighbourhoods include Sea Glints Mansions, seven five-bedroom villas of 7,338 sq ft on 12,000 sq ft plots, Beach Hills and The Fairways, where villa handover began in April 2024. Al Zorah publishes no renovation, fit-out or noise rules and has no resident app; the government register names its own company, Al Zorah Community Management FZE, as manager of Seaside Hills Residence.

Elsewhere in Ajman no authority names the freehold zones, but the land department's fee table charges non-citizens 3 percent of the sale value, with an AED 3,000 minimum, to register a purchase, which confirms they can hold title in their own name.

What will the works cost in Ajman?

Quotes for the works are confirmed per emirate. The bands on our villa cost guide, including the AED 150,000 floor for a full renovation of a basic three-bedroom villa, are published by Dubai companies, and we do not carry them across a border. What Ajman gives you is the authority's approval cost in advance: from the schedule above, the permit side of a budget is known before a contractor quotes. Sharjah by contrast leaves modification fees to its Municipality's engineers, file by file.

Send us the plot and the scope and we put the same written brief to contractors licensed in Ajman; the renovation process is the same in every emirate we cover.

Ask for Ajman quotes