Cat A vs Cat B office fit-out in Dubai: what each one means for a tenant

In Dubai the landlord usually provides the building and the tenant provides the interior, so the state of the unit at handover is the line between the landlord's cost and yours. A shell and core unit puts the whole interior on your side of that line. A Cat A unit moves the ceiling, the lighting and the air-conditioning distribution to the landlord's side and leaves you the layer your business actually works in. The lease, the landlord's fit-out guide and the handover report are where that line is written down, and all three are worth reading before an offer is accepted, because a unit let as Cat A with an old ceiling grid and too few AC outlets can need more adapting than its label suggests. The terms are in our guide to the fit-out categories explained; this page is about what each one means for an office tenant, and our office fit-out service plans and builds the tenant's layer around how your team works.

There is no single Dubai standard for Cat A; each landlord's fit-out guide lists what the building provides. In an office tower the list usually covers the items below, built to the base-building specification and, in most Dubai leases, provided by the landlord.

Cat B is the layer designed around your team and your brand, and in most Dubai leases the tenant pays for it, directly or through a contribution negotiated into the lease. The sun on a tower facade and the building's own rules shape the choices. Our guide to the commercial fit-out stages covers the order of work; these are the parts of the scope.

• Partitions, meeting rooms and private officesGlass or gypsum walls that turn the open floor into rooms, with doors, frosting and acoustic treatment where a conversation has to stay in the room. Glass partitions with frosting keep daylight reaching the centre of a deep floor when the blinds stay down against the afternoon sun.
• Reception, joinery and storage wallsThe counter, the waiting area, storage walls and feature walls such as slatted panels. Our joinery is made in our own workshop while site work goes on; at Project Door Step the slatted walls, partitions and reception counter came from that workshop.
• Floor finishesCarpet tiles where people sit, harder finishes in the reception, pantry and corridors. Carpet tiles help the acoustics of an open floor and lift where a raised floor needs access.
• Lighting designThe Cat A fittings are rarely where your rooms end up. Cat B moves or replaces them so each meeting room has its own switching and screen work gets even, glare-free light.
• Power and data to the desksFloor boxes or desk-level outlets, cable routes, the comms cabinet and CCTV or access control, planned before the ceiling and walls are closed so that no cable trails across a walkway.
• Pantry, branding and furnitureA small kitchen with water and a worktop that stands up to daily use, signage and brand graphics, and the furniture. Furniture is often a separate order, and the last stage of the fit-out is planned around its delivery.

Who builds what also decides who applies for what. The landlord's base-building work is approved as part of the building; the tenant's Cat B work needs its own consents, which in Dubai depend on where the tower stands and what the work changes. In general terms these are the ones an office tenant meets, and we apply for them ourselves as part of the project.

• The landlord's fit-out guideMost commercial buildings publish fit-out rules: the drawings to submit, the permitted working hours, which lift the contractor may use and how materials and waste move through the building. Read it before the design starts.
• The building management NOCThe written consent of the landlord or the building's management, which reviews the work before it starts, particularly where partitions, ceilings or shared services are touched. Our page on the building management NOC explains what the review usually covers.
• Fire and life safetyAdding rooms changes where detectors, sprinklers and exits need to be, and work of that kind is where Dubai Civil Defence most often comes into an office fit-out. Our page on Dubai Civil Defence approval explains where it usually fits.
• The authority with jurisdictionWhich body issues the fit-out permit depends on the zone: Dubai Development Authority within the zones under its jurisdiction, Trakhees within the jurisdiction of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, and Dubai Municipality under its own building permit procedures. Our overview of fit-out and renovation approvals sets out what decides the list. The approvals link to each other: Dubai Development Authority states on its fit-out permit page that a Dubai Civil Defence completion certificate is required before its own, and lists an NOC from the building owner among its documents.
• The completion certificateAt the end of the Cat B work, the authority's completion certificate, where one is issued, and the building's sign-off close the file. Keep both with the lease; they may be asked for when the term ends.

The handover of a Cat A unit is the moment to confirm that the landlord's list matches what is on the floor. We use the Project Study to open up the ceiling and check what services actually run through the unit, and these are the points that most often change the Cat B design.

Project Design

Silicon Oasis, Dubai · 112 sqm · February 2020 - July 2020

A commercial space in Silicon Oasis with an open-ceiling design and frosted glass partitions, plus custom kitchen wrapping, carpeting, flooring, design painting and CCTV cameras, with the services left exposed above the desks.

View project →

Project Door Step

Silicon Oasis, Dubai · 112 sqm · October 2022 - December 2022

Workspaces, meeting areas and facilities in a tower in Dubai's free zone, with new flooring, bathrooms and soundproofing. The slatted walls, partitions and reception counter were made by our own joinery team.

View project →

More of our work: YouTube · Instagram · our Google reviews