Do you need a permit to change a kitchen layout in Dubai?

There is no single kitchen layout change permit in Dubai. There are lines, drawn by Dubai Municipality, by your master developer and by DEWA, and a kitchen crosses one each time a service moves. Three moves do it: the sink with its water and drain, the hob with its gas or power, and the extractor with its duct to outside air. A fourth, taking out a wall, crosses all of them at once.

Four moves, and who has a say over each

Read the table from right to left and a pattern shows: the homeowner files almost nothing. The developer's consent is requested by the owner; everything on the authority side is filed by an accredited contractor, a registered consultant or a firm enrolled with DEWA. The Municipality's own procedure sends the inspection of adjustments and décor work to its Building Control Department, and raises a Civil Defence task only where one is required.

Send us the old and new layout

Why is moving the sink harder in an apartment?

Because a drain needs a fall, and the fall has to go somewhere. Waste runs to the building's drainage stack by gravity, so a sink moved away from its old position needs a new pipe sloping back to it, laid in the floor or hidden in a raised plinth. In a villa there is usually room for that. In a tower there often is not, and two developers close the question in writing.

Emaar's Home Modifications factsheet does not allow MEP services to be removed, relocated or covered in its apartments, nor existing floor tiles to be taken up, which rules out cutting a new drain run into the floor. Town Square's apartment manual says the same about tiles: they may not be removed or replaced, only overlaid, except on balconies. In those buildings, plan the new kitchen around the drain where it is, and put any change to the sink's position to the community in writing before it is drawn.

Villas have more room and a different rule set. Nakheel's 2023 villa codes listed plumbing maintenance, and a kitchen refit that leaves the wall layout alone, among the works needing no NOC; a new drain run is neither. In the same communities, Dubai Holding's 2026 rulebook requires an application first for any work other than maintenance and repair, so budget for one.

Who can move a gas line in a Dubai kitchen?

Not the kitchen fitter, unless it also holds a gas licence. Dubai Municipality's contractor classification lists central gas distribution networks as a contracting activity of its own, separate from building and décor contracting, which is why the firm that builds the cabinets and the firm that moves the gas pipe are often two companies. Before anything is drawn, ask the building's management how the kitchen is supplied and who maintains that supply, because the answer decides which firm you call.

Civil Defence sits above both. Dubai Civil Defence lists engineering services for authorised consultants, décor fit-out firms and LPG contracting firms; Civil Defence publishes no fee or timing for them, so the licensed gas contractor confirms both in the quote. Emaar builds the same layer into its sequence: the NOC first, then any Dubai Municipality, DDA or Civil Defence approval the work needs, then entry permits for the contractors.

Swapping gas for induction trades the gas question for an electrical one. Extra load is DEWA's decision, filed by an enrolled firm, with a building NOC in 2 working days and design approval in 1 working day for loads up to 150 kW.

Can the extractor duct go through an outside wall?

Sometimes. A new duct outlet changes the outside of the building, and that is where the rules are tightest. Administrative Resolution No. (109) of 2022, the one that frees ordinary maintenance from permits, also says that architectural or structural alterations that may compromise the safety of a building or any of its façades may not be made. The developers go further.

• Emaar villas and townhouses: changes to external elevations are not permissible, so a new outlet on an outside wall needs Emaar Community Management's view before it is drawn.
• Emaar apartments: MEP systems may not be relocated or covered, which also limits boxing a new duct into a bulkhead.
• Dubai Holding communities: any modification to the external façade needs DHCM's prior written approval, and a job that touches the façade no longer counts as a minor modification.
• Nakheel villas: the 2023 codes ruled out external plant visible from neighbouring plots, and Dubai Holding's rulebook wants written approval before any external air-conditioning unit goes up.
• Town Square: a false ceiling built to hide a duct is itself a major alteration, deposit included, so it needs approval before the duct goes in.

Where the outside wall is closed to you, a recirculating hood needs no duct at all. It strips grease and smells and returns the air, steam included, to the room: an acceptable trade in a flat, a poor one over a hob in daily use.

What does a Nakheel villa need for a new kitchen layout?

Here the permit comes from Trakhees, not the Municipality. Nakheel's online services list a Request For Villa Alteration, and the order its design codes set out starts with the Nakheel NOC, followed by a Trakhees Modification Permit, a site-access NOC for the contractor and finally a gate pass. After the work, Trakhees issues a Modification Completion Certificate, which it targets at 3 working days, and under its own procedure a modified facility is not to be occupied before it is issued.

Nakheel's 2023 villa codes, withdrawn when Dubai Holding Community Management took over, set a fee for this application and a refundable deposit for the contractor; DHCM's 2026 rulebook confirms that fees exist but publishes no amount, deposit or turnaround, so ask for the figures when you apply. The layout decides whether you are in this chain at all, because under those codes a refit inside the existing walls needed only a gate pass. The hub's guide to Nakheel NOC types sets out every application.

Town Square, Emaar and Tilal Al Ghaf

Of the developer rulebooks on this page, Town Square's says the most about kitchen layouts, and it holds one contradiction worth knowing. New counters or a customised island are major works; so are false ceilings and breaking or opening any interior wall, which its manual allows in townhouses only. But the manual writes its approval order two ways: one clause puts the authority consents before the community's, another says to seek them only after Community Management approves the proposal. Ask Town Square, in writing, which order it applies to your job.

Emaar decides minor and major works within 3 business days of complete documents, for AED 1,000 or AED 2,000 in total, its AED 500 review fee included, and our Emaar application guide lists the documents it wants. Tilal Al Ghaf asks for the master developer's prior written consent to improvements, 48 hours' written notice with the contractors' details, and a work permit before anything starts, and it charges AED 5,000 plus AED 250 VAT to review alteration plans.

For the Municipality side of any of these, the hub's permit regimes guide separates maintenance, décor and modification, and our developer-by-developer rules take the Dubai communities one at a time. A kitchen that keeps its layout is priced from AED 12,000 in MBC Renovation Services' published list; one that moves services adds the approvals above and the trades behind them. When the plan is settled, our kitchen contractors price it from one brief.