GCC construction cost per m² 2026

Building-type rates checked on 30 October 2026

The table is the comparison. Knight Frank’s H1 2025 sheet, opened the same day as the 22 September 2025 newsroom note, prints UAE villa rows of AED 4,200–5,400, 5,400–7,200 and 7,200–11,000 per m², apartment rows of AED 4,300–5,200, 5,200–6,100, 6,100–8,000 and high-rise 6,100–9,500, and commercial buildings at AED 5,500–7,300. JR Villa Renovation states a Qatar villa average of QAR 4,000–7,500 per m² and does not split finish levels. بوادر الاحتراف, dated 13 July 2026, prints Riyadh shell labour only at SAR 130–180, shell with materials at SAR 550–750, finishing only at SAR 800–1,300 and VIP turnkey at SAR 1,400–2,200. مكتب العضيب للاستشارات الهندسية, dated 15 July 2026, prints a Riyadh shell of SAR 500–750, build with medium finish from SAR 1,500 to 2,500 or more, and turnkey at SAR 1,600–3,200 in the opening and the area table, then SAR 1,500–3,200 in a later sentence. إتقان للمقاولات, published 5 August 2026, prints Jeddah shell with materials at SAR 1,000–1,400, medium turnkey SAR 1,400–2,000, luxury SAR 2,000–3,000 and VIP SAR 3,000–5,000, and uses SAR 1,600 inside the medium band for its own examples. Open-ended aso-eng.com lines, an economic build from about SAR 1,350 and a luxury villa that may exceed SAR 3,800, are not given a missing end here.

Turner & Townsend’s 2025 UAE and KSA asset tables print CBD offices, a large warehouse, high-rise apartments, two hotels, advanced manufacturing and a car showroom. Dubai offices are AED 6,200 and Abu Dhabi offices AED 6,000. Riyadh offices are SAR 9,000. Warehouses are AED 4,000 in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi and SAR 8,000 in Riyadh. The column headers say “Dubai 2025 (AED)”, “Abu Dhabi 2025 (AED)” and “2025 Cost (SAR)”. They do not print “per m²”. The GCMI 2025 methodology, opened the same day, defines building costs in that survey as costs per m² and names those asset types. The unit in this table is that definition, and the header gap stays in the source column. No Qatar asset-type table was on the Qatar page that opened, so every Qatar office, warehouse, hotel and apartment cell is a dash. The villa pages do not treat these asset cells as villa rates. This page does not either.

City averages in US dollars, converted at the peg

Turner & Townsend’s Qatar Market Intelligence 2025 page says Doha’s average construction cost is US$2,631 per m², up from the 2024 average of US$2,096 per m². The UAE 2025 page says Dubai is US$1926 per m², rank 74, and Abu Dhabi is US$1872 per m², rank 76, across 6 building types. The KSA 2025 page says Riyadh’s average is US$3,112 per m², from the 2024 average of US$2,593 per m². The Global Construction Market Intelligence 2026 Middle East page says the average price to build in Riyadh is US$2,874.0 per m² and that average construction costs in Dubai have reached US$1,990.0 per m². It says the data were collected before the conflict in the Gulf. These are city averages. They are not a G+1 villa, and the 2025 and 2026 Dubai figures are not averaged. The 2024 figures stay labelled as the prior averages the 2025 pages print.

The pegs used for the local column are QAR 3.64, AED 3.6725 and SAR 3.75 per US dollar. They are stated here. The surveys do not print them beside these city averages. US$2,631 becomes QAR 9,576.84. US$2,096 becomes QAR 7,629.44. US$1926 becomes AED 7,073.235. US$1872 becomes AED 6,874.92. US$1,990.0 becomes AED 7,308.275. US$3,112 becomes SAR 11,670. US$2,593 becomes SAR 9,723.75. US$2,874.0 becomes SAR 10,777.5. Each product is marked converted. A city average is not multiplied by 400 m² in the villa example.

Worked example: a 400 m² villa in each country

Total cost ≈ GFA m² × rate per m². For this example, 400 m² is the built-up floor area the named rate uses, not the plot and not a 400 m² footprint counted twice. Qatar at the JR Villa Renovation average is 400 × QAR 4,000–7,500 = QAR 1,600,000–3,000,000. The UAE standard tier is 400 × AED 4,200–5,400 = AED 1,680,000–2,160,000. The UAE high-end tier is 400 × AED 7,200–11,000 = AED 2,880,000–4,400,000. Riyadh shell with materials on the Bawader table is 400 × SAR 550–750 = SAR 220,000–300,000. aso-eng.com already prints the 400 m² turnkey total as SAR 640,000–1,280,000, which is 400 × SAR 1,600–3,200. إتقان already prints 400 × SAR 1,600 = SAR 640,000 for the Jeddah building only. Those last two products are the pages’ own arithmetic. The others are this guide’s multiplication of a printed band.

Blank extras stay blank. إتقان prints separate estimates, which it marks تقديري, of SAR 55,000 for external works and the boundary wall and SAR 35,000 for government fees and meters on the 400 m² example. Those are lump sums, not a rate per m², so they are not given a cell in the table and they are not added to SAR 640,000. A basement, pool or lift stays on the stage budget of the country page. Enter a written quote in the Qatar villa stage budget, the UAE villa stage budget or the Saudi villa stage budget. The CSV of every row, including the dashes’ omission, is at /data/gcc-construction-cost-per-m2-2026.csv.

Land, fees and tax, only as the sources state them

The GCMI 2025 methodology says building cost per m² in that survey includes preliminaries, substructure, the frame, stairs, roof, external and internal walls and doors, wall, floor and ceiling finishes, fitments, plumbing, HVAC, fire protection, electrical and communication systems, and transportation systems. It excludes external works, landscaping, professional fees, demolition, loose furniture, fittings and equipment, the developer’s internal costs and finance, local authority fees and headworks charges, land, legal costs, finance and holding costs, GST or sales taxes, site investigation and test bores, removal of significant ground obstructions, and abnormal footings. Underground or on-site car parking is excluded unless stated otherwise. The same page says the figures should be treated with at least a +/−10.0 percent range of accuracy, and that applicable taxes are excluded. That list is the 2025 survey’s list. It is not printed on the Knight Frank villa table, and it is not printed as a split of the contractor riyal bands, so it is not copied onto those rows. The 10 percent is not used to widen any cell.

Knight Frank’s sheet does not say whether land, design fees, approval fees or VAT sit inside AED 4,200–11,000. The JR Villa Renovation sentence states an average per m² and does not say whether land is inside QAR 4,000–7,500. The Bawader, aso-eng.com and Itqan rows describe the contract in the spec column, and a shell row is not a turnkey row. No page opened for this guide states a VAT percentage, so none is printed. Qatar preliminaries of about 8 to 15 percent and contractor margins of 5 to 10 percent, on the Turner & Townsend Qatar page, are shares of construction cost. They are not a price per m² and they are not added to the 400 m² lines.

Where to take the next measurement

Use one row at a time. The villa construction cost in Qatar page keeps the Qatari riyal villa band and its stage budget. The villa construction cost in the UAE page keeps the dirham tiers per m² and per square foot. The villa construction cost in Saudi Arabia page keeps the riyal shell, finishing and turnkey rows, including pages that call their own bands indicative. Those three pages are the place for a single-country quote. This page is the place for the side-by-side cells. The GCC construction guides collect both.

A per-m² benchmark does not order concrete. Price a measured volume in the concrete cost calculator. Dated ready-mix comparisons stay on concrete price per m³ in Qatar, concrete price per m³ in the UAE and concrete price per m³ in Saudi Arabia. Block counts that sit under a shell are in blocks per square metre. Dated rebar prices per ton are in rebar price per ton in the UAE and rebar price per ton in Saudi Arabia. How to read the item, the unit, the quantity, the rate and the amount on a contractor bill, including preliminaries, provisional sums and prime cost sums, is in how to read a villa bill of quantities. A free Excel workbook with blank rates for substructure and superstructure is the villa BOQ template. The downloadable table is gcc-construction-cost-per-m2-2026.csv.

Questions people ask

Sources and calculation basis

Source links support the points named beside them. Worked quantities are Construclytic calculations using the assumptions shown above. A price in a table is the figure that source printed on the date it was read. It is not a quotation for your site, and it does not replace the project specification.

1. Knight Frank: UAE Construction Landscape H1 2025Opened 30 October 2026. One-page sheet. Villa standard AED 4,200–5,400 per m², mid-market AED 5,400–7,200, high-end AED 7,200–11,000. Apartments AED 4,300–5,200, 5,200–6,100, 6,100–8,000, and high-rise AED 6,100–9,500. Commercial buildings AED 5,500–7,300. The sheet does not define psm or the finishes inside each tier, and it does not say whether land, fees or VAT are inside the rate.
2. Knight Frank: UAE Construction Landscape H1 2025 newsroom noteOpened 30 October 2026. Article dated 22 September 2025. As of Q2 2025, residential construction costs ranged from AED 4,200 per sqm for standard villas to AED 11,000 per sqm for high-end villas. Apartments from AED 4,300 per sqm to AED 9,500 per sqm. Commercial buildings AED 5,500–7,300 psm at the end of H1 2025. The mid-market villa row is on the sheet and not in this sentence.
3. Turner & Townsend: Qatar Market Intelligence 2025, construction cost performanceOpened 30 October 2026. Doha average US$2,631 per m², from the 2024 average of US$2,096 per m². Converted on this page at QAR 3.64 per USD to QAR 9,576.84 and QAR 7,629.44. City averages, not a villa rate. Contractor margins 5 to 10 percent. Preliminaries about 8 to 15 percent. No asset-type QAR per m² table was on the page.
4. Turner & Townsend: UAE Market Intelligence 2025, construction cost performanceOpened 30 October 2026. Dubai US$1926 per m², rank 74, and Abu Dhabi US$1872 per m², rank 76, across 6 building types. Converted at AED 3.6725 per USD to AED 7,073.235 and AED 6,874.92. Asset-type table, header “Dubai 2025 (AED)” and “Abu Dhabi 2025 (AED)”, which does not print per m²: offices 6,200 and 6,000; 3-star hotels 6,500 and 6,500; 5-star hotels 10,500 and 10,500; large warehouse 4,000 and 4,000; advanced manufacturing 6,750 and 7,200; car showroom 9,750 and 8,750; high-rise apartments 5,500 and 5,500.
5. Turner & Townsend: KSA Market Intelligence 2025, construction cost performanceOpened 30 October 2026. Riyadh average US$3,112 per m², from the 2024 average of US$2,593 per m². Converted at SAR 3.75 per USD to SAR 11,670 and SAR 9,723.75. Asset-type table, header “2025 Cost (SAR)”, which does not print per m²: offices 9,000; 3-star hotels 12,000; 5-star hotels 22,500; large warehouse 8,000; advanced manufacturing 9,000; car showroom 10,000; high-rise apartments 8,500.
6. Turner & Townsend: Global Construction Market Intelligence 2025, methodologyOpened 30 October 2026. Building costs per m² include preliminaries, structure, finishes, plumbing, HVAC, fire, electrical, communications and transportation systems. Exclusions include external works, professional fees, local authority fees, land and GST or sales taxes. The ranking average uses six named types and no villa. Figures are for programmes at the beginning of 2025, relevant for Q1 2025, with a stated +/−10.0 percent range of accuracy. Applicable taxes are excluded. This definition supplies the unit for the 2025 asset tables. It is not applied as a split of the Knight Frank or contractor rows.
7. Turner & Townsend: Global Construction Market Intelligence 2026, Middle EastOpened 30 October 2026. Average price to build in Riyadh US$2,874.0 per m², converted at SAR 3.75 per USD to SAR 10,777.5. Dubai average US$1,990.0 per m², converted at AED 3.6725 per USD to AED 7,308.275. The page says the data were collected before the conflict in the Gulf. Not averaged with the 2025 city figures.
8. JR Villa Renovation: villa contractors in QatarOpened 30 October 2026. The contractor states that villa construction averages QAR 4,000 to 7,500 per m². The page does not split shell, standard, mid-range or luxury, and it prints no date on the figure. The rate sentence does not say whether land is included. 400 m² at that band is QAR 1,600,000–3,000,000 on this page.
9. مؤسسة بوادر الاحتراف: villa shell and finishing prices in Riyadh, 2026Opened 30 October 2026. Page date 13 July 2026. Riyadh: shell labour only SAR 130–180 per m²; shell with materials SAR 550–750; finishing only SAR 800–1,300; VIP turnkey SAR 1,400–2,200. Rows are not added together. 400 × 550–750 = SAR 220,000–300,000 on this page.
10. مكتب العضيب للاستشارات الهندسية: villa construction cost in Riyadh, 2026Opened 30 October 2026. Article dated 15 July 2026. Estimates. Shell SAR 500–750 per m². Build with medium finish SAR 1,500–2,500 or more. Turnkey usually SAR 1,600–3,200, and a later sentence says SAR 1,500–3,200. The area table prints 400 m² shell SAR 200,000–300,000, medium finish SAR 600,000–1,000,000 and turnkey SAR 640,000–1,280,000. Economic from about SAR 1,350 and luxury that may exceed SAR 3,800 are not closed bands and are not given cells.
11. إتقان للمقاولات: villa construction cost per metre in Jeddah, 2026Opened 30 October 2026. Published 5 August 2026. Jeddah shell with materials SAR 1,000–1,400 per m². Medium turnkey SAR 1,400–2,000. Luxury SAR 2,000–3,000. VIP SAR 3,000–5,000. The page multiplies 400 m² by SAR 1,600 to get SAR 640,000 for the building. It also prints estimated lump sums of SAR 55,000 and SAR 35,000 on that example. Those lump sums are not per m² and are not added here.