Office Relocation Checklist for Dubai: An 8-Week Timeline

A Dubai office move should not begin with cardboard boxes. It should begin with paperwork and IT.

Two things seriously disrupt an office relocation when they are started too late: the administrative work connected with your new business address, and the transition of your internet, network and IT systems. Furniture can be moved in a weekend. A connection or approval that was never arranged cannot.

Use this eight-week checklist to work backwards from your target opening date.

Before you start: assign one owner

Every office move needs one person who owns the overall schedule. Not someone who packs every box. Not someone who performs every technical task. One person who knows what must happen, who owns each task, when it is due and what is blocking progress.

Why office moves fail without a single point of contact

Without a central coordinator, teams make decisions independently. Facilities assumes IT has arranged connectivity. IT assumes management has confirmed the move date. The mover assumes building access is approved. Staff assume somebody else is labelling furniture.

A single project owner prevents these gaps.

Who else needs to be involved?

Depending on the business, your relocation group may include management, facilities, finance, HR, IT, building management, the landlord, your telecom provider, the moving company and fit-out contractors. Create one shared relocation schedule everyone works from.

8 weeks out: decisions and paperwork

Eight weeks before the target move, focus on the things that affect everything else.

Confirm the new lease and Ejari

Make sure the new premises and the lease documentation are progressing before you plan downstream tasks around an uncertain location. Tenancy registration requirements are published by the Dubai Land Department.

Start the trade licence address amendment

This is one of the items that should begin early rather than late. Confirm the required process with your licensing authority or service provider — general guidance for business services in the UAE is available on the UAE Government portal.

Give notice on the current space

Check your commercial lease and pay attention to notice periods, exit obligations, reinstatement, handover requirements, deposits and access.

Audit what you're actually taking

Don't pay to move furniture the business no longer needs. Separate items into:

• move
• store
• sell
• dispose
• confidential disposal

This also gives the mover a far more accurate scope to quote against.

6 weeks out: vendors and IT

Now turn the plan into bookings.

Get moving quotes and book the date

An office quote should be based on real scope. Give movers information such as staff count, number of desks, filing volume, IT equipment, furniture, floors, lift access, specialist items and storage requirements. Our office moving service quotes from a site visit rather than a phone estimate.

Brief your IT team or provider

Your IT relocation plan needs its own timeline. Identify what shuts down, who disconnects it, how equipment is labelled, how it is transported, who reconnects it and who tests it.

Internet and telecoms at the new site

Treat connectivity as an early task, not something to arrange after the furniture arrives. Your team cannot work in a beautiful new office with no functioning network. Business connections are arranged through Etisalat or du.

4 weeks out: building approvals

You now need to confirm access at both locations.

Both buildings' move permits

Your old building may have a move-out process and your new building a move-in process. Don't treat them as one approval.

After-hours access approval

If you want the move completed in the evening or over a weekend, confirm that both buildings permit the planned schedule.

Insurance certificates

Send any building insurance requirements to your moving company in advance. Don't discover them at reception on moving night.

Parking and loading bay booking

Confirm where the moving vehicle can load and unload. Long carrying routes increase handling time — and therefore cost.

3 weeks out: tell people

Once the date is stable, communicate it.

Staff communication

Tell employees the move date, their last working day in the old office, the packing deadline, what they must pack, what they should take home and when they report to the new office.

Avoid vague instructions like "pack your desk before Friday." Give a deadline and a labelling method.

Clients, suppliers and banks

Prepare a business address-change list covering clients, suppliers, banks, couriers, partners and service providers.

Online and printed details

Update your Google Business Profile, website, email signatures, letterhead, invoices and business directories. Schedule the changes so they don't go live too early or too late.

2 weeks out: pack-down planning

This is when the office should become physically ready for the move.

Labelling system by department and desk

Don't label a box only "office." Use a system like:

Department → employee/desk → box number
Example: Finance — Desk 08 — Box 2 of 4

This tells the crew where a box belongs without anyone needing to open it.

Confidential documents

Treat confidential records separately. Decide what should be moved securely, archived, shredded or destroyed through an approved process.

What gets stored, sold or disposed of?

Resolve this before moving night. Anything still undecided becomes an obstacle when the crew is working to a schedule. If some items need to go somewhere temporarily, commercial storage is usually cheaper than moving them twice.

Move week

This is execution week, not decision week.

Day-before staff pack-down

Employees complete personal desk packing according to the agreed system. Shared areas should already be assigned to specific people.

IT shutdown sequence

Your IT team should know the order in which systems go offline, and critical equipment should be clearly identified.

Move night

The moving team should have access, loading instructions, floor plans, labelled furniture, destination details and a contact person at both sites.

First morning back

Don't judge success only by whether the furniture arrived. The office is ready when staff can actually work. Check connectivity, workstations, phones, meeting rooms, printers, critical systems and access cards.

After the move

A good relocation finishes with a close-out process.

Snag the new space

Record problems while they are still fresh.

Old space handover

Complete the handover according to the lease and building requirements, and document the condition of the space with photos.

Update remaining records

Go back to your original address-change list and confirm nothing was missed.

The 8-week office move checklist

FAQs