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FitOutPermits.ae — Driven by Halo

The authority registry

Every approval authority in Dubai. One dossier per regime.

Your unit’s address decides which of these owns your permit. Each dossier covers when approval is required, the documents, the process, indicative fees, rejection reasons and timelines — as we run them daily.

15 authorities on file · Reviewed July 2026

Inside every dossier01When required02Documents03Process04Fees05Rejection reasons06Timeline07FAQs
REG A

Building-control regimes

Exactly one of these owns your permit

Dubai runs parallel building-control regimes — mainland, free zones and the PCFC territories. Your address places you under precisely one of them, and its rules, portal and reviewers are yours for the whole project.

REG C

Master-developer NOCs

The private consent before the public one

In master communities the developer's no-objection certificate comes first — authorities won't open a review without it. It's the landlord layer of the approval stack, and it has its own checklists, deposits and clocks.

REG D

Locate your regime

Know the address, not the authority?

Pick your area of Dubai and the registry opens to the right page — the regime that owns your permit, plus the authorities that usually review alongside it.

Full approval finder

Select your area

Your permit authority

Dubai Municipality

Mainland (onshore) Dubai — commercial, residential and industrial buildings outside free zones

Dubai Municipality (DM) is the permitting authority for most onshore buildings in Dubai. If your office, shop, restaurant, clinic or warehouse sits on mainland land — not inside a free zone or a master developer's private jurisdiction — your fit-out permit is issued by DM through the Dubai Building Permit System (Dubai BPS).

Usually alongside

Business Bay / Downtown / Deira / Al Quoz
Business Bay / Downtown / Deira / Al QuozMainland Dubai
REG E

Questions

Asked before every submission

The questions that decide an approval strategy — answered plainly here, and in depth inside each dossier.

It depends entirely on your unit's address: Dubai Municipality for mainland, DDA for TECOM districts, DMCC/Concordia for JLT, Trakhees for Palm Jumeirah and PCFC areas, DIFC for the financial centre, and each free zone (JAFZA, Dubai South, DSO, DHCC) for its own territory. Master communities like Emaar's and Nakheel's add a developer NOC on top. Our free Approval Finder tool answers this in under a minute.

Yes — DCD drawings, submissions, registered specialist-contractor coordination, and inspection management including our standard pre-walk before every official visit. Fire and life safety is a track we never subcontract away.

No. Starting before the permit is issued exposes you to fines, stop-work orders and complications that resurface at completion stage and beyond. The reliable way to protect an opening date is submitting early and clean — not building early.

Almost always. Regularisation involves as-built documentation, structural verification where needed, and retrospective submissions to the developer and authority. It's slower than doing it right the first time but clears titles, unblocks transactions and restores insurance validity. We handle it discreetly and constantly.

All questions

Start with a free permit check

Not sure which of the fifteen applies? That's the free part.

Send the unit location and intended works — we'll return the exact authority map for your project, the documents each one wants, and a fixed quote. Usually within one business day.

+971 55 969 3009 · hello@fitoutpermits.ae · Al Quoz, Dubai