Painting cost guide for Dubai homes: apartments and villas

1. Apartment painting costs

For a standard interior repaint, a studio typically starts from around AED 449, a 1-bedroom apartment from around AED 799, and a 2-bedroom apartment from around AED 1,299. These entry prices assume walls in reasonable condition and a straightforward, similar-tone colour — they're the number you should expect for the simplest version of the job, not a ceiling on what it might cost once you add rooms, colour changes or extra prep.

If you'd rather think in per-square-metre terms, standard interior painting in Dubai generally runs AED 15-25 per square metre, or roughly AED 1,000-1,500 to repaint a single room on its own. That per-room figure is useful if you're only refreshing a bedroom or living room rather than the whole unit, since it lets you compare a quote against a like-for-like benchmark instead of a whole-apartment number that doesn't apply to your job.

Taken together, a full apartment repaint — every room, one or two coats, standard prep — commonly totals AED 2,500-6,000 depending on the size of the unit and the finish you choose. A studio or 1-bedroom sits toward the lower end of that range, while a larger 2 or 3-bedroom apartment with multiple bathrooms, a kitchen, and several coats for a colour change sits toward the top.

2. Villa painting costs

Villas cost more simply because there's more wall (and often more rooms) to cover. Interior-only painting averages around AED 2,500 for a 2-bedroom villa and around AED 3,000 for a 3-bedroom villa. That's for the inside alone — hallways, bedrooms, living areas, kitchen and bathrooms — and it's a reasonable ballpark to hold a contractor's quote against if you're only touching up the interior before moving in or re-letting the property.

Once you add exterior walls, the picture changes considerably. A full villa painting job, covering both interior and exterior, can range anywhere from AED 5,000 up to AED 50,000 or more. That's a wide spread, and it's wide for good reason: villa size, number of storeys, wall condition, exterior surface area, and whether scaffolding or lift access is needed all push the number around within that range. A modest single-storey villa with simple, easily reached exterior walls will land toward the bottom of that range; a large multi-storey villa with an ornate facade, boundary walls, and hard-to-reach upper sections will land much closer to the top.

Because that range is so wide, it's worth asking any villa quote to break out interior and exterior pricing separately, and to specify whether it includes boundary walls, garages, or outbuildings — these are easy to miss in a verbal estimate and often explain why two quotes for "the same villa" can look very different.

3. Per square foot and per square metre rates

If a contractor quotes you per square foot rather than a lump sum, standard interior painting generally runs AED 10-20 per square foot, which works out to roughly AED 100-215 per square metre for typical finishes and normal prep work. Rates toward the lower end usually assume walls that just need a clean repaint; rates toward the higher end usually include more prep, better paint, or both.

4. What actually moves the price within these ranges

Three things explain most of the variation you'll see between quotes for what looks like the same job. First, colour change: going from a darker wall colour to a lighter one needs extra coats to fully cover the old colour, which adds both paint and labour time compared to a similar-tone repaint — this alone can meaningfully shift a quote, sometimes by a full extra coat across every wall in the unit. Second, surface prep: older walls with cracks, old peeling paint, or damp patches need patching, sanding and priming before a single coat of the new colour goes on, and that prep work is often where the real labour hours go rather than the painting itself. A wall that looks "just needs a coat of paint" from across the room can turn into a half-day of prep once someone gets close to it. Third, who supplies the paint: some quotes include paint in the price, others expect you to buy it separately, so always confirm which you're comparing before judging a number as expensive or cheap — a lower quote that excludes paint can easily end up costing more once you factor in the cans yourself.

5. How long the job actually takes

Timelines matter as much as cost if you're planning around the work, especially if you won't be living in the space while it happens. An empty 1-bedroom apartment can often be painted in a single day. A 2-bedroom apartment typically takes 5-7 days once you account for prep, drying time between coats, and multiple rooms. A villa can take 10-15 days depending on its size and how much wall condition needs addressing before painting starts. Build this into your schedule rather than assuming painting is a same-day job across the board.

6. Choosing paint that survives Dubai's climate

Not all paint ages the same way here. Budget paints commonly fade within 2-3 years under Dubai's intense sun and heat, especially on exterior walls and rooms that get direct sunlight through large windows — you'll often see it first as a dulling or yellowing on the sun-facing side of a room, well before the rest of the wall looks tired. Premium paints formulated with heat-reflective and anti-fungal properties typically last 5-7 years and resist the moisture that causes peeling and mould — a real concern in bathrooms, kitchens, and any wall that's ever been near a leak, even one that was fixed long ago, since trapped moisture behind a wall keeps causing paint problems until it fully dries out.

Paying more up front for the right paint in the right rooms is usually cheaper over a few years than repainting a fading wall twice as often. It's worth being selective rather than upgrading every wall in the home: spend on the higher-spec paint for exterior walls, bathrooms, kitchens and any sun-facing rooms, and it's reasonable to use a standard interior paint for lower-exposure rooms like bedrooms and hallways where fading and moisture are less of an issue.

7. Interior versus exterior painting

Exterior villa painting isn't just "the same job outside." It adds direct sun and UV exposure that the paint has to withstand year-round, and it often requires scaffolding or elevated access to reach upper floors or boundary walls safely. Both of those push cost up on top of whatever the interior work already costs, which is a big part of why full villa jobs span such a wide range — a small, single-storey villa with easy access sits at one end, and a large multi-storey villa needing scaffolding sits at the other.

Already decided on wallpaper instead of paint for a feature wall? The Wallpaper Calculator works out exactly how many rolls you need. For a full job estimate including labour time, the Handyman Time Estimator gives you both time and cost.