An owner can find out what a unit is missing only after applying for the permit, when an inspector checks it against the list. The Property Masters renovates and furnishes apartments and villas for holiday-home use, working from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) checklist and a site survey. We're a licensed contractor, not the regulator. DET licenses holiday homes, issues the permit and inspects the unit, so we can't promise a permit or a class. What we can do is build and furnish the unit against DET's current checklist, confirmed at survey, and handle the building's NOC and any approvals the works need.
DET's holiday-home guide sets most furnishing quantities per bedroom or studio, so a package scales with the unit. Each bedroom or studio needs a sofa or armchair for 2 and a dining table with at least 2 chairs, so a 1-bedroom needs one living setup and a 2-bedroom needs two. The kitchen needs cooking utensils and 2 tableware sets for each bedroom, and the main bedroom and any studio need a safe.
A villa adds more. The guide asks for suitable garden furniture and barbecue equipment in Deluxe villas, and fencing on villas outside closed communities. Where there's a pool, it wants warning signs and safety equipment. We price each package after a site survey, against the unit's size and the class you're aiming for, so there are no figures on this page.
Furniture can't fix what the shell gets wrong. DET's checklist sets a minimum bedroom floor area, measured without the bathroom and entrance: 12 sqm for a Standard bedroom and 17 sqm for a Standard studio, 14 sqm and 20 sqm for Deluxe. If the layout falls short, that's a renovation question before it's a furniture one.
The same goes for the rest of the shell. The guide expects an odour extractor in the kitchen and, for Deluxe units, an en-suite in the master bedroom, a glass door on the shower or bath, an oven, and a dishwasher in units with two or more bedrooms. Those touch plumbing, power and ventilation. Moving a wall or a wet area is a permit conversation, and internal modification approval shows where the line sits. Our apartment renovation and villa renovation pages cover the building rules and the programme.
Guests judge a unit in the first minute and then again in the review. Blackout curtains are on DET's list, and they also help people sleep after a late arrival. Beyond that, the design choices that help reviews are practical ones. Storage that swallows luggage. Bedside lamps that work for reading. A dining table that seats the number of guests the bedrooms suggest. Matching sets, so one broken item is easy to replace.
Photos come from the same decisions. Good light, uncluttered surfaces and one clear focal point per room photograph well, and they read the same in person. We plan the layout so each room can be shot from the door without moving furniture.
Holiday homes turn over guests every few days, and the finishes take that. We specify floors that wipe clean and resist scuffs from suitcases, upholstery that can be cleaned or replaced, and joinery with edges that survive luggage and cleaning trolleys. Bathrooms and kitchens get finishes that tolerate constant cleaning.
Choosing a material is cheaper than replacing one every year. If you'd like fitted wardrobes or a media wall built to the unit's dimensions, see custom furniture. Kitchens and bathrooms are covered on our kitchen renovation and bathroom renovation pages.
In DET's holiday-home guide, a licence and a permit are two separate things. The licence authorises the person or company to run the activity. The permit approves one furnished unit as a holiday home. Owners register in the Holiday Homes System, and DET publishes the checklist units are inspected against.
DET classifies units against that checklist. The checklist has columns for Deluxe and Standard apartments, Deluxe and Standard villas, and farms. An inspector visits the unit, and if a requirement isn't met the operator gets a warning or a penalty and a 2-week window to fix it. Meeting the checklist before you apply is cheaper than fixing it after. That's where the fit-out helps.
The checklist isn't the whole picture. Title deed type, the sale-and-purchase agreement, insurance and the number of permits an owner holds all matter too, and they sit with the owner. For the permit itself, read our holiday home permit guide.
This is a summary of Appendix 1 in DET's holiday-home guide, by room. It's not the full list, and DET can update it, so we work from the current version at survey. Our guide to furnishing a Dubai holiday home to DET standard goes through it room by room.
The whole unit needs Wi-Fi, a washing machine with a dryer, curtains or blackout to fully darken rooms, an iron and ironing board, a first aid kit, emergency procedures in Arabic and English, emergency tools such as fire extinguishers or blankets, and a visitor guide. The main door needs a peep-hole or intercom and a SIRA-approved smart lock connected to the Keyless system. The unit also needs a DET notice showing its address, class and permit number, and a QR sticker outside the door.
The living room needs a sofa or armchair for two, a dining table with at least two chairs per bedroom or studio, a television and a rug. Deluxe units add a coffee table and wall decoration.
Bedrooms need beds with headboards and modern mattresses, a bedside table with a drawer or shelf, a bedside lamp, a wardrobe with a mirror and at least 6 hangers, 2 sets of sheets and pillow covers for every bed, and a safe box in the main bedroom and any studio. The main bed is 200 x 150 cm at minimum in Standard units and 200 x 180 cm in Deluxe. Deluxe main bedrooms add an en-suite and a television.
Bathrooms need a shower or bath, a sink with mirror and lighting, toiletries, 2 sets of towels for each room, a bidet spray or WC washer, towel holders, a bath mat and hooks. Deluxe adds a glass door on the shower or bath, a magnified shaving mirror and a hair dryer.
Kitchens need a sink, a microwave, an odour extractor, a cooker and a fridge. Deluxe units need a cooker with an oven and a fridge with a separate freezer, plus a dishwasher in units with two or more bedrooms.
Where the unit has an assistant's room, the guide sets a minimum size of 9 sqm, a single bed of at least 190 x 90 cm and a wardrobe with at least 3 hangers.
Before you spend on the fit-out, check that the building allows holiday-home use. DET's guide says it won't issue a permit for a unit whose sale-and-purchase agreement expressly bars holiday-home use. Then there's the building itself. Towers and master communities issue their own renovation guidelines, working-hours windows, service-lift bookings and a refundable deposit, and the NOC comes before any authority permit.
We deal with the building directly, and the fit-out approvals hub shows which approvals your works need. Cosmetic works and furniture installation often need only the building's NOC. Anything that moves walls or wet areas is a permit conversation.
The order matters more than the calendar. We start with a site survey and a gap list against DET's checklist. If the works need approvals, the building NOC and any permit go in next, and they set the date, not the build. Then renovation, where the unit needs it, followed by furniture, which we order at design freeze so it arrives when the shell is ready. Installation, styling and a final check against the checklist come last.
DET inspects the unit with no guests in it, so the unit has to be ready before the permit inspection, not after the first booking. We don't quote weeks, because the building and the approvals set them.
DET's guide requires regular maintenance of the unit. It also says that if a major fault such as failed air conditioning or a water leak hits a guest on arrival, the operator has to offer an equal or better unit at no extra charge. A maintenance plan is cheaper than that. Our maintenance team handles air conditioning contracts, plumbing and electrical, and AC contracts keep the cooling going through summer.
Cleaning is a separate job from maintenance. Our existing premium deep cleaning service is available as a periodic reset for a holiday home, and our deep cleaning frequency guide covers how often that makes sense. Both are easier to run when the same team that furnished the unit knows what's in it.