Interior fitout company · Dubai · The buyer’s side
Fajr Interiors is an interior fitout company in Dubai, carrying design, approvals, build and furniture on one contract since 2011. If you are comparing interior fitout contractors in Dubai, settle who files the approvals before you compare a single price. Approvals decide the dates, and a bid that leaves them to you is pricing a different job.
Office floors of 2,000–20,000 sqft50+ projects since 2011Every check here applies to us too
Read any bid in this order · each step has its own section below
The Fajr film · 1:05
One minute inside our studio and on our sites: the plans, the surveys, the crews and the villas and offices we hand over. The people in the film are the people who would run your fitout.
One contract or two
Every fitout runs on the same drawings. What differs is how many contracts stand between the drawing and the finished wall. A split between a design firm and a contractor suits a frozen scope and a client with time to referee. Design and build suits a fixed date, an occupied floor and made joinery.
| The question | Two contractsDesigner, then contractor | One contractDesign and build |
|---|---|---|
| 01What it suits | An in-house design team already under contract, a scope frozen before tender, and time to referee two firms. | A fixed move-in date, an occupied floor, made joinery, and a budget with little room for variations. |
| 02What it costs you | Time and claims. Every clash between drawing and site crosses a contract line, and each crossing has a price. | A tender on the design itself. That is why we price against a drawing set you can put in front of anyone. |
| 03Who files the approvals | Often nobody by name. The designer draws, the contractor builds, and the filing falls between them. | The party that answers for the dates, inside the contract. |
| 04Where MEP sits | Often a separate subcontract, with a contract line through the ceiling void. | Coordinated with partitions, ceilings and joinery before anything is made. |
| 05Who answers for the programme | Two programmes, each right about its own part. | One programme, set against your lease. |
Design and build gives up one thing: a second opinion on the design from a separate firm. We answer that by pricing line by line, so the number can be read beside any other bid. How the one contract runs on an office floor →
What a fitout company carries
An interior fitout company takes a leased shell to an occupied floor, and its fitout services run from design and approvals to the handover file. On one contract that means design and approvals, then partitions, ceilings, flooring, MEP alterations and joinery, then furniture, IT and AV, and finally the handover file. What the landlord hands you first sets how much of that list is yours to buy.
Shell-to-occupied
Turnkey adds
Around both
Shell, Cat A and Cat B are defined on their own page: Cat A and Cat B, explained →
One floor, one contract
Glazing, lighting controls, furniture and a wellness room on IMI’s executive floor at One Za’abeel: designed, approved, built and furnished by one team, against a move-in date that did not move.
See the IMI projectChoosing a fitout contractor
Fitout companies in Dubai rarely fail on ambition. They fail on licence classification, on approvals nobody owned, and on lines that were never in the bid. What the best interior fitout companies in Dubai have in common: their own trade licence, their own authority registrations, approvals filed in their name, an itemised bid and a handover file. Run these seven checks on every contractor on your list, including us, and treat the price as the eighth item rather than the first.
The trade licence should name interior contracting, and its classification should cover the works in your scope, not only decoration.
Our answer
Trade licence 648890: interior contracting, G+1 approved contractor with Dubai Municipality.
The contractor should be registered where your building is governed. One that is not learns the portal on your programme.
Our answer
Emaar, Nakheel, DDA, Trakhees, Dubai Municipality and Dubai Civil Defence; the DMCC, DIFC and JAFZA free zones.
“We assist with approvals” usually means you file them. Ask whose name goes on the submission.
Our answer
We prepare and submit the landlord, authority and Civil Defence packages, inside the contract.
Inside the contract, MEP is a design input. As a separate subcontract, every clash in the ceiling void becomes a claim.
Our answer
MEP alterations sit in our contract, coordinated with partitions, ceilings and joinery before anything is made.
Count the lines before you compare the totals. A missing line is not a saving; it is a variation with a date on it.
Our answer
Itemised line by line against drawings. Run the bid audit below on ours, as you would on anyone’s.
If your team stays in, phasing, out-of-hours trades and staged switchovers belong in the first price, not in a later one.
Our answer
The phasing plan is agreed before we mobilise and priced with the rest of the scope.
As-built drawings, test and completion certificates, O&M manuals. Ask to see the index from a finished job.
Our answer
Systems tested, snags closed and the file issued at the end of the furnish stage. Ask us for an index.
08Then the price. Compare totals once the scopes match, line for line. A cheaper total on a thinner scope is a dearer project, delivered late.
On site
Before a price is fixed, we mark the plan out on the slab and walk it; while the floor is built, we are on it. The first film is site verification on our own HQ floor. The others are from an executive floor at Opus Tower, as it went up.
How we walk a plan before you sign itBid audit
Two quotations for the same floor can describe two different jobs. Before you compare totals, check each bid for six lines: approvals, MEP alterations, fire and life safety, out-of-hours working, making good, and furniture installation. A missing line is not a saving. The work still has to happen, and it returns mid-build as a variation.
| No. | The line | What it covers | Bid A | Bid B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Approvals and authority submissions | Landlord NOC, authority submissions and Civil Defence: the filing work and its fees, owned by a named party. | ||
| 02 | MEP alterations | Cooling, power and data moved to suit the layout, priced against the design rather than parked in a provisional sum. | ||
| 03 | Fire and life safety | Detection, alarm and suppression works to Civil Defence requirements. Often excluded, rarely avoidable. | ||
| 04 | Out-of-hours working | Loud trades after hours, weekend switchovers and building-management supervision, as an occupied tower requires. | ||
| 05 | Making good | Reinstating the base build where the works touch it, and the condition your lease says you hand back. | ||
| 06 | FF&E delivery and installation | Receiving, lifting, assembly and setting out. Furniture bought is not furniture installed. | ||
| Lines missing | ||||
Your two bids, counted
Bid A
6of 6 lines
missing
Bid B
6of 6 lines
missing
Compare the totals only when both bids read zero missing. Until then, the cheaper number may simply be the shorter list.
Both bids name all six lines. The totals now describe the same job, so they can be compared.
No prices go in here, and nothing you tick leaves this page.
Label your quotations A and B, whoever sent them, ours included. A line counts as named when it appears as its own item or inside a described one, not when it sits in the exclusions.
Instagram · Zeeshan PatelThe cheapest quote.
Zeeshan Patel on comparing renovation bids.
On film · Zeeshan Patel
“Don’t fall for the lowest number.”
Compare the exact scope, the materials and who is actually managing your site. That is where the real cost hides.
Registrations and approved lists
A fitout contractor should hold its own registrations wherever your building is governed. Ours: trade licence 648890 for interior contracting, G+1 approved contractor with Dubai Municipality; registered with Emaar, Nakheel, DDA, Trakhees, Dubai Municipality and Dubai Civil Defence; working in the DMCC, DIFC and JAFZA free zones; and on four tower approved lists.
AAuthorities and master developers
Trade licence 648890, interior contracting; G+1 approved contractor.
Registered for fitout submissions in Dubai Development Authority districts.
Registered for submissions inside its jurisdiction.
Fire and life safety approval, where a layout changes.
Registered contractor with the master developer.
Registered contractor with the master developer.
BFree zones
JLT and the DMCC district. Free-zone registration.
Dubai International Financial Centre. Free-zone registration.
Jebel Ali Free Zone. Free-zone registration.
CTower approved lists
Approved contractor list. IMI at One Za’abeel →
Approved contractor list.
Approved contractor list. Opus by Omniyat →
Approved contractor list.
Many towers admit only the contractors on their own list, so check the list before you shortlist. Ask any contractor, us included, for the licence and registration numbers in writing.
What it costs
Three numbers, three scopes
An office fitout in Dubai starts at AED 350 per sqft for shell-to-occupied — partitions, ceilings, flooring, MEP alterations and joinery. Turnkey, with FF&E, IT, AV, automation and appliances included, runs AED 600–850 per sqft. IMI at One Za’abeel landed at AED 840 per sqft; Opus by Omniyat, in its final weeks before handover, is contracted at AED 726.
Per sqft of floor area · planning bands, not a quotation
What moves a floor inside the band
We price against drawings, not against a rate. A rate quoted before the drawings exist is a planning band. The quotation is itemised line by line against the drawing set, so it can sit beside any other bid on the same scope.
How a fitout is priced →Proof
Two floors show the method on real numbers. IMI at One Za’abeel is 5,000 sqft for AED 4.2M over 28 weeks, finished and in use. Opus by Omniyat, 6,200 sqft, is contracted at AED 4.5M on a 24-week programme and is in its final weeks before handover. Both run on one contract, from client brief to handover.
RenderDelivered
Enclosed offices, sit-stand desks, a wellness room, a kitchen and a boardroom. Three layout options and fifteen planning rounds to a signed plan, against a move-in date that could not move.
“Great feeling walking into this beautiful office.”
InstagramUnder construction · final weeks
Turnkey, from client brief to handover. A floor with little natural light, planned with glass partitions so borrowed light reaches the core. Joinery is going in now.
Delivered · 8 December 2024
The executive floor as it was handed over, on the date the programme was built around, and the client on what it felt like to walk into it.
The full IMI project file
Offices delivered
Photographs of offices we designed and built for ASI, Crypto One, Global Textiles, Serene and AlSubeai Investments. Each one opens its project file.
All office projects
ASI · Novotel, DubaiCEO office
Global Textiles · Opus TowerGlass corridor
Crypto One · Sheikh Zayed RoadWorkstations
Serene · Vision TowerReception
AlSubeai Investments · JeddahBoardroom
ASI · Novotel, DubaiClient lounge
Serene · Vision TowerExecutive office with a city view
Global Textiles · Opus TowerExecutive office
AlSubeai Investments · JeddahClient loungeBuyer’s FAQ
Interior fitout company FAQ — Dubai.
A fitout consultant advises and drafts: the brief, the drawings and the tender, but does not build. A fitout contractor builds what is drawn and runs the site. An interior designer designs the rooms. Design and build covers all three on one contract, so the team that draws the floor also builds it.
The party that answers for the programme. Approvals decide when work can start, so filing them belongs inside the fitout contract, not with the tenant. We prepare and submit the landlord, authority and Civil Defence packages ourselves, and we are registered with Emaar, Nakheel, DDA, Trakhees, Dubai Municipality and Dubai Civil Defence.
Not with us. MEP alterations sit inside the fitout contract and are coordinated with partitions, ceilings and joinery before anything is made. A separately appointed MEP contractor puts a contract line through the middle of your ceiling void, and every clash across that line turns into a discussion about who pays.
Shell-to-occupied work, meaning partitions, ceilings, flooring, MEP alterations and joinery, starts at AED 350 per sqft. Turnkey, with FF&E, IT, AV, automation and appliances included, runs AED 600–850 per sqft. Where a floor sits inside that band depends on partitions, joinery, AV and furniture, and the quotation should be itemised against drawings.
Every line of the scope, named, with the exclusions stated. Check six lines in particular: approvals and authority submissions, MEP alterations, fire and life safety, out-of-hours working, making good, and furniture delivery and installation. A bid that leaves them out is not cheaper. The work still has to be done. It should also state the defects liability period: Fajr’s is 12 months from handover.
No. Many towers admit only contractors on their own approved list, and each authority and free zone registers the companies that submit to it. Check both before you shortlist. We are on the approved lists at One Za’abeel, Vision Tower, Opus Tower and Emaar Square, and work in the DMCC, DIFC and JAFZA free zones.
The best interior fitout company for your floor holds its own trade licence and authority registrations, files the approvals in its own name, prices an itemised bid against drawings and hands over a complete file. Fajr Interiors has worked this way in Dubai since 2011, under trade licence 648890 and as a G+1 approved contractor with Dubai Municipality.
Start in the right order
Send the floor, the headcount and the dates you are working to. We come back with a scope, a sequence and a straight number, itemised so it can sit beside any other bid.
Trade licence 648890 · Interior contracting, G+1 approved contractor (Dubai Municipality) · Registered with Emaar, Nakheel, DDA, Trakhees, Dubai Municipality and Dubai Civil Defence · DMCC, DIFC and JAFZA free zones