What a kitchen renovation in Dubai costs in 2026
Budget refresh (paint, doors, worktop, new appliances): AED 25,000–60,000 for a standard apartment kitchen. Mid-tier full kitchen rebuild with quality joinery, quartz worktop and built-in appliances: AED 80,000–180,000. Premium villa kitchens with island, large-format porcelain worktops, custom hood and integrated luxury appliances: AED 200,000–600,000+.
Layout — galley, L, U or island
Galley (linear): best for small apartments and rental units, most efficient use of square footage. L-shape: most common for villa kitchens — good workflow, opens to dining. U-shape: maximum storage and worktop, needs decent floor area. Island: premium feel, requires minimum 4m × 4m clear floor area, ideally with proper venting routed back to existing extract.
Joinery, worktop and appliance choices
Joinery: PVC-foiled MDF (budget), melamine on MDF (mid), lacquered MDF or veneered (premium), solid wood doors (luxury). Worktop: post-formed laminate (budget), quartz engineered stone (mid-premium — best value for Dubai), porcelain large-format (premium), natural marble (luxury, needs sealing). Appliances: Bosch, Siemens, Miele and Liebherr dominate the Dubai market with strong service support.
MEP work that's easy to forget
A proper kitchen renovation moves plumbing rough-ins, adds dedicated electrical circuits (oven, hob, dishwasher, fridge, hood), re-routes drainage falls and verifies extract ducting actually vents outside the building (a common Dubai apartment failure — extracts dumping back into the ceiling void). Build all of that into the quote — retrofitting it after tile is down is expensive.
Realistic timeline
Mid-tier kitchen: 4–6 weeks from strip-out to handover. Premium kitchen with custom joinery and stone worktop fabrication: 6–10 weeks. Imported joinery: add 8–12 weeks. We confirm the actual lead time of every item in writing before ordering.
