The band
The band is AED 420–1,400 per sqft of built-up area.
The Estimate band for villa renovation in Dubai is AED 420–1,400 per sqft, measured on the villa's built-up area, not the plot. The band is the same whichever renovation type you pick on the Estimate page, because type, finish level and options are recorded for review, not priced by a form. Villa budgets start from AED 1M.
Built-up area is the villa's covered floor area across its floors. It is the number the band is multiplied by, so two villas on plots of the same size can start from very different figures. The garden and the plot do not enter the arithmetic.
A band is not a quote. It tells you, before anyone draws a line, whether the renovation you have in mind sits in a sensible range for your villa. The quote comes later, priced line by line against drawings and a specification you have seen.
Why the band is wide
Villa renovation covers three different amounts of work. An upgrade strips and uplifts the finishes. A remodel replans the space and upgrades all MEP and finishes. An extension adds GFA to increase the built-up area. One band has to hold all three, and the specification inside each of them.
That is why the band narrows at the site survey, not on a web page. The survey sees the villa's condition, what the community requires and what the brief actually asks for — the three things a form cannot see. The three types are set out on the villa renovation in Dubai page.
What moves the number
What moves a villa within the band.
Five decisions move a villa within the band, and each one is cheapest to make early: the renovation type, the specification, the MEP scope, the approvals route and the furniture. None of them is a taste question on its own. Each changes what has to happen first, and a late change pays for undoing earlier work.
01 · Type
Upgrade, remodel or extension
An upgrade strips and uplifts the finishes. A remodel replans the space and upgrades all MEP and finishes. An extension adds GFA. Each step up adds trades, drawings and approvals before the first finish goes in.
Decided at the site survey
02 · Specification
Stone, veneer, joinery
Stone, veneer and made joinery carry lead times of around eight weeks. Specified with the drawings, they are ordered on time. Chosen on site, they are rushed, substituted or waited for, and a waiting site still runs.
Decided at design sign-off
03 · MEP scope
What sits behind the walls
Cooling, power, water and controls sit behind every finish. Replacing them means opening ceilings and walls, so the decision belongs before the finishes are chosen, not after they are installed.
Decided at survey and design
04 · Approvals
The route your scope triggers
The developer NOC and any authority permit follow the scope. A scope that grows after submission can mean resubmitting, so the drawing set is settled before it is lodged.
How villa approvals work →Decided before submission
05 · Furniture
Planned with the layout
Furniture, curtains, lighting and styling can sit inside the same contract. Bought first, furniture often spends what the joinery needed. Planned with the layout, it fits the walls it was drawn for.
Decided with the layout
Changing a render costs a drawing. Changing a built room costs a demolition.
The order matters as much as the choice. A kitchen island in stone is a line in a quote when it is drawn in the design stage; the same island decided after the floor is laid is a line plus the work to lift and relay what is around it. That is the difference a sequence makes to a number without anyone choosing a more expensive material.
It is also why the same villa can be quoted very differently by two companies. One prices the finishes it can see; the other prices the finishes, the services behind them and the approvals in front of them. Read both quotes for what they leave out.
Where the money goes
Where a villa budget goes — an illustrative shape.
On a full design-and-build villa renovation, three lines carry about half of an illustrative budget: FF&E, joinery and MEP. The wheel below shows nine trade lines as illustrative allocations, not a quotation or verified averages. It is there to show proportion and order, not to price your villa.
Where the money goes
NOCs, permits and authority fees — the cost of being allowed to start.
Site setup, hoarding, insurances, supervision and welfare. The overhead of a run site.
Strip-out, protection and disposal. Cheap to do, expensive to do carelessly.
Openings, slabs and steel. Signed by an engineer, not a designer.
Cooling, power, water and controls. Invisible until it is wrong.
Blockwork, screeds, plaster and waterproofing. The substrate everything else sits on.
Wardrobes, kitchens, panelling, doors. Made to your walls, once.
Stone, tile, timber, paint. Every surface you touch.
Furniture, curtains, lighting and styling — the layer you actually live with.
Illustrative allocations, not a quotation or verified averages.
Three lines carry half the budget — FF&E, joinery and MEP. The wheel is shaded by size, not by trade.
The most expensive mistake in this wheel is spending the joinery line on furniture first. That is not a taste problem; it is a sequence problem, and it is solved by drawing the joinery before anything is bought.
Read the wheel as an order of work as much as a split of money. Approvals and preliminaries come first and are small; demolition, structure and civil works make the shell ready; MEP goes in before anything covers it; joinery and finishing follow the signed drawings; FF&E arrives last, into rooms built to receive it. A budget that runs out early usually ran in the wrong order, not over.
Worked example
A worked example — arithmetic from the band, not a quote.
Take a 6,000 sqft villa. Multiplying its built-up area by the Estimate band gives AED 2.52M at AED 420 per sqft and AED 8.4M at AED 1,400 per sqft. That range is arithmetic from the band, not a quote: where the villa actually lands is set by the five decisions above, priced against drawings.
| Built-up area | × AED 420 / sqft | × AED 1,400 / sqft |
|---|---|---|
| 4,000 sqft | AED 1.68M | AED 5.6M |
| 6,000 sqft | AED 2.52M | AED 8.4M |
| 8,000 sqft | AED 3.36M | AED 11.2M |
Arithmetic from the band, not a quote. Built-up area × AED 420–1,400 per sqft. Not an average and not a project result. Villa budgets start from AED 1M.
Why this guide does not narrow it further
Narrowing the range needs four things a guide cannot see: the renovation type, what the MEP is doing, which authority signs and what the specification is. A number narrowed without them is a guess with a decimal point. The site survey sees all four, and the quote follows the drawings.
Reading a quote
How to read a renovation quote: itemised or lump sum.
An itemised quote lists materials, quantities and allowances line by line, so you can check it, compare it and see what changes when the scope does. A lump sum is one number for the whole job, which you cannot check, compare or hold anyone to. Ask for the itemised version before you compare prices.
Five things to check on any villa quote
- Which type it prices — upgrade, remodel or extension.
- Whether approvals are inside it — the developer NOC and any authority permit.
- Whether MEP is replaced or only reconnected to what is there.
- Which lines are allowances rather than fixed items, and what each assumes.
- Whether furniture and styling are inside the contract or bought separately.
Hidden costs to budget for: authority and NOC fees if a submission is resubmitted, structure found at strip-out, MEP that turns out to need replacing, changes made after sign-off, and furniture left out of the quote. Keep a contingency for what the survey cannot see.
| Itemised quote | Lump sum | |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | Every trade line, with materials, quantities and rates | One total, sometimes split by room |
| Comparing two quotes | Line against line — the gaps show | Total against total — the gaps hide |
| When the scope changes | You can see which lines a change touches | The whole number is reopened |
| Allowances | Named, with a quantity and a rate you can check | Folded into the total |
| What to ask | Which lines are allowances, and what do they assume? | What is inside this number, line by line? |
How Fajr quotes: an indicative band at the site survey, then a line-by-line quote priced against the drawings and the materials you specify, before anything is ordered or built. One contract can carry design, approvals, build and furniture, so every one of those appears as its own lines rather than as a single total.
