What a Dubai apartment already comes with, and what you actually have to buy

People arriving from markets where a newly built apartment is handed over as a shell tend to budget for a fit-out that is not needed, and then under-budget for the things that genuinely are. Dubai does this differently: the interior is finished as standard, and the gap between a delivered apartment and a liveable one is narrower and more specific than most first-time buyers assume.

Knowing exactly where that gap sits is worth money in two directions — what you do not have to spend on arrival, and what you should not overspend on if the unit is going to be let.

What is normally in the price

In Dubai a finished interior is the norm rather than an upgrade: painted walls, flooring, sanitaryware and a fitted kitchen. Building amenities come with it — pool, gym, barbecue areas, 24-hour security and concierge — along with parking from one bay upward depending on the scheme and the number of bedrooms. A smart-home system is common.

What is less common, and therefore the thing to verify rather than assume: integrated appliances and full furniture packages. Both have to be checked against the specification schedule rather than the brochure, because a render showing a kitchen with an oven in it is not a contractual commitment that an oven will be there.

What is not in the price, and never was

The service charge covers the common parts. Everything inside your own walls is yours: electricity and water, internet, insurance, and any repair or replacement of appliances. That last clause is the one that catches new owners — the building maintains the lift and the chiller plant, and you maintain the dishwasher.

Two items that regularly get left out of an arrival budget:

• Window treatment. Curtains or blinds are rarely part of a handover and are not a decorative question in this climate — orientation and glazing decide how much the room costs to cool and whether it is usable in the afternoon.
• Storage and white goods. Even where a kitchen is fitted, a washing machine, a fridge and the rest may or may not be, and the specification schedule is where that is settled rather than the sales conversation.

If the flat is going to be let

Furnishing is an investment decision here rather than a taste one, and it behaves differently at different price points. In the mid-market, a sensible furnishing package widens the tenant pool and shortens the void more than it raises the headline rate — and the void is what usually damages the model. In premium stock, furniture quality does move the rate, because the tenant is comparing against serviced alternatives. Over-specifying in a mid-market unit is the classic way to spend capital that never returns.

The corollary is that the question is not "how good should the furniture be" but "what is this unit competing against". A one-bedroom in a tower with twenty identical units handed over the same quarter is competing on speed of letting; a unit in premium stock is competing with a serviced apartment. Those call for different budgets.

The practical checks nobody makes until it is too late

• Measure the service lift and the corridors before ordering anything large. Whether a big piece can physically reach the apartment through the service lift and the corridors is a viewing question, not a delivery-day surprise, and in the upper segment it is one of the standard checks alongside independent humidity control and UV-filtered glazing.
• Read the building's rules on deliveries and works — permitted hours, goods-lift booking, contractor registration. The management company enforces them and a weekend delivery that has not been booked simply does not happen.
• Anything structural is a permit question first. Moving a wall, changing plumbing or altering a facade element is permission first and contractor second, which is its own subject and one we have written up separately.
• Photograph everything on handover, dated. If you are renting furnished this is the inventory that decides the deposit argument later; if you own, it is the record of what was actually delivered against the specification.

The way to think about it

The Dubai norm of a finished interior removes a whole class of risk that buyers in other markets carry, and it removes a whole class of opportunity with it: you cannot differentiate a mid-market unit much through the finish, because everybody else's finish is the same. What differentiates it is the things that cannot be changed — floor, orientation, view, the parking bay, the building's management — and then, at the margin, a furnishing package that is appropriate rather than expensive.

Spend on the parts that are permanent. Verify the parts that are supposed to be included. And get the specification schedule in writing before signing, rather than the brochure.

Based on the off-plan, service charge and letting answers in this site's English buyer's FAQ, and on the upper-segment fit-out material in our English write-ups.