Moving into a new building in Dubai is not the same job as moving into a tower that has been lived in for ten years. The paint is days old, the service lift may still be under commissioning, the management office is often half staffed, and twenty other families have been handed keys in the same week as you.
We do these moves across Dubai Creek Harbour, Dubai South, Business Bay and Meydan, and the same problems come up every time. This is what to settle with the developer and the building before you book a crew, what to protect on the day, and the order that keeps a brand new flat from picking up its first damage during your own move in.
Snag the Unit Before Any Furniture Arrives
Do the snagging inspection while the rooms are still empty. Walls, skirtings, door frames, balcony glass, the air conditioning and every socket are easy to check and photograph with nothing in front of them, and a snag item is much harder to raise once a wardrobe stands against the wall. If you are paying for a snagging report, book it for the week you collect the keys.
Then hold the move until the main fixes are done, or at least until you know which rooms the contractor still needs. Touch up work brings dust sheets, ladders and wet paint, and none of that sits well with stacked cartons. If the old tenancy ends first, the furniture can go into storage rather than sit under plastic in a flat still being worked on.
- Photograph every room before anything is carried in
- Check the air conditioning runs in each room, not only the hall
- Test every socket, tap and the drainage in both bathrooms
- Keep the snag list and the contractor's access dates in one place
In a New Tower the Lifts Set Your Date
A freshly handed over tower often runs with fewer lifts than the drawings show. Cars are still being commissioned, one may be held for contractors, and the goods lift sometimes has no padding fitted yet. At the same time most of the building is moving in across six or eight weeks, so the slots go quickly, and they go to whoever asked first.
Ask the management office for a written slot, how long it runs, and whether the lift is shared with deliveries that morning. Tell us the answer before the crew is booked. A two hour window on one working lift at the thirty fourth floor is a different job from an open morning with two lifts, and it changes the crew size, not only the start time.
Permits and Access Cards in a Building That Is Days Old
New buildings still ask for a move in permit, but the office handling it may not be the one handling it next year. In the first months a developer's handover team, a managing agent or the owners association may each hold part of the process, and the security contractor at the desk is often new to the site too. Ask who signs, in writing.
Cards, fobs and parking tags are usually issued at handover, and they are frequently not yet programmed for the service lift, the basement or the bin room. Our crew cannot tap through a door for you. Collect and test everything a day early, and arrange a temporary pass for the movers if the building wants one. Our guide to move in and move out permits in Dubai lists the usual documents.
- Confirm in writing who issues the move permit
- Collect and test every card and fob the day before
- Ask whether the crew needs a visitor or contractor pass
- Check the moving hours the building has set for handover season
Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai South: Reaching the Door
Districts that are still being built change shape month to month. In Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai South we have reached towers where the mapped entrance was closed, the podium parking was not open, and the only route in was a temporary site road behind a contractor gate. Add a community security point that wants the unit number and the permit, and half an hour goes before a box is lifted.
So we check access the week before, not on the morning. A photo of the gate actually in use and a note of where a three or four tonne truck can stand beat any map. Where the truck must stop well away from the entrance, the longer carry goes into the quote rather than being found on the day. Our moving company in Dubai page explains the survey.
New Floors, Fresh Paint and Skirtings Nobody Has Knocked
The damage people mind most in a new home is rarely a broken plate. It is a scuffed skirting, a chipped door frame or a grey streak across porcelain tiles laid a fortnight ago. Nothing is marked yet, so everything shows. Protection is the part of a new build move we will not shorten, even when the lift slot is tight.
Runners go down from the lift lobby to the far bedroom, guards go on door frames and the lift car, and heavy pieces travel on a dolly or on felt rather than across the tile. Legs come off tables and beds where the design allows, because a piece taken apart clears a doorway. If the building has not padded the goods lift, our blankets go on the walls.
- Runners over the finished floor on every route we use
- Guards on door frames, wall reveals and the lift car
- Wardrobes and beds taken apart rather than forced through
- Nothing dragged, and nothing leant against fresh paint
DEWA, Ejari and a Fibre Line That May Not Be Live
Get the power and water running before the day. Owners activate with the title deed and the handover papers, while tenants register the Ejari first and then submit the DEWA move in request against the new premises number. Working in an unlit flat with no cooling is slow, and the fridge cannot go back on at the end of it.
Internet is the one that catches people out. A tower can be handed over before every riser is connected, and an installation date in a new building is not always within a few days. Ask du or e& about your exact unit, not the district, before you give up the line at the old address. If you work from home, keep the old connection alive for a week.
New Furniture Deliveries and Our Truck on One Morning
Almost everyone buys something for a new home, and the showroom delivery often lands in the same week as the move. Two trucks and two delivery teams wanting one goods lift inside one slot does not work. Put the move first and the deliveries a day or two later, or ask the building for separate windows and tell both sides which window is theirs.
It also pays to know where the new pieces are going before they turn up. Measure the room, the lift car and the apartment door, then mark the wall while the flat is empty. Made up sofas and tall wardrobes are the usual casualties of a narrow entrance hall, and a new tower rarely has a staircase anyone will let you use.
How We Plan a Move Into a Newly Handed Over Building
A survey for a new build covers two addresses and one construction site. We look at the old home for volume and access, then ask for the handover detail at the other end: the slot, the permit, the gate in use, the floor, and whether the unit is finished. Out of that comes one fixed written price and the crew size.
The crew protects the flat before it fills. Boxes are set down in the room written on the label, beds and wardrobes are rebuilt where they stand, and the cartons and wrapping leave with us at the end. Tell us your handover week as soon as the developer confirms it. Call 058 135 7375 or request a free quote, and we will fit the survey around your inspection.
