Guide: approvals
Abu Dhabi development approvals: registration, building permits and occupancy
A development in Abu Dhabi passes through several approvals, and they are easily run together. Registering a developer or a project with the real estate regulator, obtaining permission to carry out the works, and establishing that a finished building may be occupied are separate decisions, usually taken by different parts of government. This guide maps the three, and shows where changes of use and demolition sit among them.
Three approval categories and what each answers
Each category answers its own question. Knowing which question you are asking tells you which authority to approach, and what a given approval settles and leaves open. How a building's intended use shapes its design is covered under building development; the approvals below are what make that use lawful.
Registration: who is developing, and which project?
Abu Dhabi's real estate law requires anyone carrying out real estate development to be registered in the Real Estate Development Register, and requires developers to register their projects. The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) holds the municipal real estate functions that the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) brought together in 2023. Registration concerns the developer and the project as real estate matters.
Permission for works: may this be built?
A building permit concerns the works themselves: what is built, altered or removed on a plot. DMT and the municipalities issue permits. DMT introduced its Binaa permits platform in 2025 and has said it will keep extending it, so whether a particular commercial or industrial application runs through Binaa is something to confirm rather than assume.
Occupancy: may the finished building be used?
A completed building is not automatically cleared for use. DMT treats occupancy certification as a function of its own, distinct from building permits, and runs a Building Occupancy and Legalisation Certificate Programme under Administrative Decision No. (1) of 2024. The question here is whether the finished building may lawfully be occupied for its approved use.
Registration does not replace other approvals
Law No. (3) of 2015 concerning the regulation of the real estate sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is explicit on this point. Article 12 prohibits anyone from practising real estate development unless registered in the Real Estate Development Register as a master developer or sub-developer, and then states that a registered developer is not exempt from obtaining any other licence, permit or approval required by another government entity. Article 13 requires the developer to register its real estate projects with the Department under the law, its executive regulation and the Department's instructions.
Project registration, in other words, does not replace a building permit. A registered developer with a registered project still needs permission for the works and, at the end, clearance to occupy. Registration brings the project under the real estate law; Article 13 has the Department annotate the land's entry in the Real Estate Register to show that the project is subject to the law. It does not authorise construction, and it does not authorise anyone to move in.
Where a developer intends to sell units before completion, registration also connects to a further gate, the project escrow account. That subject has its own guide: Abu Dhabi project escrow: how the off-plan sale trigger applies.
Construction and occupancy are different decisions
A building permit answers a question asked before work starts: may these works, on this plot, for this use, go ahead as designed? Occupancy answers a question asked after the works are finished: may the building now be used as approved? The two are linked, since the completed building is the product of the permitted works, but one approval does not stand in for the other.
DMT describes the management of building permits and of occupancy certification as two of its functions across the emirate. Its occupancy and legalisation programme under Administrative Decision No. (1) of 2024 shows that occupancy has a framework of its own, one that also covers the legalisation of buildings. The certificate requirements, stages and any deadlines are set by DMT and change over time, so they are confirmed for the specific building rather than taken from a general list.
For a development decision, the practical point is timing. Anyone who plans around the construction programme alone can find the building finished but not yet usable. Occupancy questions belong in the brief from the outset, alongside the permit questions, and the same applies to a multi-tenant scheme, where commercial building development decisions about cores, servicing and fit-out affect what has to be in place before tenants arrive.
Changes of use and demolition within the same map
Not every project starts on an empty plot. Converting an existing building to a different activity, extending it, or demolishing it to build again each raise approval questions of their own. In 2024, Abu Dhabi City Municipality's building permits department ran workshops for consulting offices whose topics included demolition permits, conditions in regularisation and demolition transactions, and recurring gaps in change-of-activity requests on civil defence, traffic movement and structural matters.
Those topics show that change of activity and demolition are recognised categories within the permit system. They are not a complete or current checklist, and this guide does not prescribe a sequence. What they suggest is a set of questions. Is the new activity compatible with the approved use of the building and the plot? Will the change affect the structure, fire safety or traffic? If a building is to be demolished, which permit covers the demolition, and how does it relate to the approval for whatever replaces it?
An existing building also carries its own history. If its current use or condition differs from what was approved, that difference is worth establishing before a change is designed, because it shapes what any later application has to address.
Questions for the responsible authority and project team
Before committing to a site, a building or a development partner, write down which of the three categories each decision depends on and who will confirm it. The questions below cover most projects. The answers come from the responsible authority for the location and from the project's own consultants; this guide only helps to frame them.
- Is the developer registered in the Real Estate Development Register, and is the project registered, or due to be registered, with ADREC?
- Which permit or permits do the planned works need from the municipality, and will the application run through Binaa or another channel?
- What does occupancy require for this building and its approved use, and who is responsible for obtaining it?
- For an existing building: what use is currently approved, and does the proposed change of activity or extension need a new approval?
- If demolition is part of the plan, which permit covers it and what conditions come with it?
- Will any units be sold before completion? If so, the project escrow rules also apply to the decision.
Weighing a site or a building?
Tell us about the site or building, what you plan to do with it and the questions it raises. We can discuss the development scope with you; approvals are confirmed by the responsible authorities.
Discuss a development