Before signing an office lease in Dubai

A short answer: do not sign an office lease until you have answered three separate questions with evidence: can this space support your real day-to-day work, can your intended activity and planned changes be confirmed for this building, and do the full occupancy costs still work once everything is written down. A polished viewing is not enough.

Use the checklist below as a sign-off worksheet, not as passive reading. If you are still building a shortlist, start with commercial properties.

Start with a one-page occupier brief

Before you compare units, write a brief that fits on one page. If you skip this, every office tour becomes subjective.

Include only the points that change the decision:

• your actual business activity in plain language
• whether clients visit the office, and how often
• headcount on a normal day and on the busiest day
• desks needed now and within the next 12–18 months
• number of meeting rooms, phone booths, reception, pantry or break area needed
• any storage, server, printing, sample display or confidential work needs
• the latest move-in date you can accept
• the maximum year-1 budget and the maximum steady-state annual budget
• whether you need a fitted office now or can accept works before move-in

This brief becomes your control document. If someone proposes a cheaper office that breaks the brief, it is not cheaper for your business. It is simply a different requirement.

Suitability and permission are not the same test

An office can feel right operationally and still need confirmation for your intended activity, building rules or planned works. The reverse is also true: a unit may be acceptable in principle for your activity, but still fail because the layout, access or delivery condition does not work for your team.

Treat these as two separate sign-offs:

1. Operational fit: can people work here efficiently and receive visitors, calls, deliveries and equipment without daily friction?
2. Permission and approval fit: has the landlord, building management and your licensing or approval adviser confirmed what needs to be confirmed for your activity and your planned changes?

Do not merge those into one vague “looks fine”. If a point needs confirmation, log the exact question, who will answer it, and by when.

Use this office lease sign-off matrix

Rate each item for every shortlisted office on a simple scale:

• 0 = not acceptable
• 1 = workable only with extra cost, time or compromise
• 2 = confirmed fit

Weighted score formula: (rating ÷ 2) × weight. Maximum total = 100.

Any item marked Hard stop means: do not sign until you have written evidence.

Checkpoint	Weight	What to confirm	Evidence to collect	Hard stop
Business activity fit	25	What your team actually does in the office, plus privacy, visitor flow, deliveries, equipment and any special room needs	Written Q&A log with landlord/building side and your approval adviser	Yes
Access and building operations	15	Staff and visitor arrival, lift capacity, parking, loading access, working-hour access, delivery process and any operational restrictions	Site walk at your expected arrival time, building rules, parking list	No
Headcount and daily flow	15	Seats now, seats in 12–18 months, meeting rooms, waiting area, pantry, circulation and peak-day crowding	Marked floor plan with desk and room test	No
Usable layout	20	Whether the shape of the office really supports your plan, not just the quoted area	Marked plan showing desks, rooms, storage, server/printer points and dead corners	No
Works and delivery condition	10	What is already installed, what must be built or repaired, who does it and when the office is actually usable	Condition report, works list, draft timeline, photos	Yes
Real occupancy cost	10	All costs you will bear, not only the headline rent	One-sheet cost model with assumptions	Yes
Lease clarity	5	Whether the lease reflects the deal you think you made	Marked draft lease with unresolved points listed	Yes

A useful rule: even if one office scores highest, reject it if it fails a hard-stop item. High scores do not compensate for missing evidence on a critical point.

Walk the office like an operator, not a viewer

A good viewing is a live test of your working day. Run the office through five scenarios:

1. first staff arrival in the morning
2. a client visit
3. a delivery or equipment move
4. a normal meeting-heavy day
5. end-of-day exit

As you walk, ask specific questions instead of general ones. Where will visitors wait? Where do confidential calls happen? Can a 10–12 person team move without blocking circulation? Is there a practical place for printers, storage and cables? If you need one room more than the plan comfortably allows, count that as a layout failure, not a minor inconvenience.

Bring a marked-up floor plan or sketch. If you cannot place the required desks and rooms on paper, you do not have the office you think you are leasing.

Also separate “available” from “usable”. A unit being offered now does not automatically mean your team can occupy it on day one. Confirm possession timing, current condition and any works that must finish before move-in.

Build the real cost comparison

Headline rent is only one line in the decision. Create the same cost sheet for every finalist.

Suggested structure:

• annual rent
• parking or other add-on space charges
• utilities and building-related costs you will bear
• one-off works, repairs or setup needed before use
• furniture, IT, data or cabling setup
• moving costs
• any landlord contribution to works, shown as a separate deduction

Then compare both year-1 total and steady-state annual total.

A hypothetical example, with all monetary figures in thousands of AED:

• annual rent: 120
• parking: 12
• utilities/building costs borne by tenant: 24
• one-off works and furniture move: 30
• IT/data setup: 6

Then:

• year-1 total = 120 + 12 + 24 + 30 + 6 = 192
• steady-state annual total = 120 + 12 + 24 = 156
• if the office supports 12 desks, then year-1 cost per desk = 192 ÷ 12 = 16
• and steady-state cost per desk = 156 ÷ 12 = 13

This is not a market benchmark. It is simply a clean comparison method. Use it to compare two offices that look similar but impose different hidden costs.

Review the lease by matching every promise to a document

Before signing, turn the commercial discussion into a document checklist. Every material promise should appear in at least one of these:

• the lease draft
• a marked plan
• an inventory or condition report
• a written cost schedule
• a written timeline for works or handover

Your review list should cover the practical points that change risk for your business: payment timing, what areas or spaces are included, who handles which repairs or works, what approvals are needed for your changes, what happens to installed items at the end of the term, access rules, signage if important, parking if included, and any break or renewal wording if discussed.

If a point was agreed verbally, assume it does not exist until it is written down clearly enough that a third person could understand it.

Hold a 30-minute go/no-go meeting

Make the final decision in one short internal meeting with the matrix on screen. Each hard-stop item should have only one of three outcomes:

• Go: evidence received and accepted
• Go with conditions: a specific document or correction is still due before signing
• No-go: the office fails the brief or the risk is not priced properly

Keep the conditions precise. “Need comfort” is not a condition. “Need written confirmation on client access hours and parking allocation before signing” is a condition.

If you are still narrowing options, use the property quiz to turn your brief into a cleaner shortlist.