One figure keeps circulating in business-setup blogs: a JAFZA warehouse from about AED 48,000 a year. It is wrong. At Jebel Ali Free Zone's real rates, that number does not buy a bonded warehouse at all. It buys you into office territory. So before you choose JAFZA office space or a jafza warehouse, it helps to see the actual facility ladder and what each rung costs in 2026.
This guide walks through every JAFZA facility tier in order, from a flexi-desk to a bonded warehouse. For each one you get the real size, the indicative annual cost, and the visa quota it unlocks, because in JAFZA your premises and your headcount move together. The figures come from JAFZA's own facility pages and from leases our team has signed and renegotiated for clients. If you are still weighing the zone itself, the wider picture sits in our JAFZA business setup hub.
Key takeaways
| Facility | Approx. Visa Quota |
|---|---|
| Flexi-desk | 1 to 3 visas |
| Private office | Scales by area, roughly 1 visa per 9 sq m (80–100 sq ft) |
| 500 sqm warehouse | 15 to 20+ visas |
| Large industrial plot | 50+ visas |
Figures are indicative for 2026 and move with availability and unit spec. Confirm live rates with JAFZA's leasing desk or in a consultation before you sign.
Is there really a JAFZA warehouse for AED 48,000?
No. We say this plainly because it is the question most goods businesses arrive with. JAFZA's smallest pre-built warehouse is a 313 sqm Light Industrial Unit. Per JAFZA's own warehouses page, fitted units range from 313 sqm to 670 sqm, and the wider stock runs up to 1,110 sqm. A small bonded unit realistically starts near AED 125,000 a year, and live brokerage listings put fitted small warehouses at AED 200,000 to 280,000 and above.
So where does AED 48,000 come from? It is a setup-blog estimate that never matched JAFZA's pricing. At JAFZA's real rates, AED 48,000 lands you a small private office, not storage space. Publishing the lower number would misquote the zone by three to five times. We would rather give you the true ladder, then help you pick the right rung.
The four JAFZA facility tiers at a glance
JAFZA leases premises as a ladder. Each step up buys more space and a larger visa quota. Here is the honest 2026 line-up for a goods or trading business.
| Facility | Typical Size | Indicative Annual Cost | Visa Quota | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flexi-desk / smart-desk | Shared workstation, JAFZA One | From ~AED 15,000 | Up to 2 | Traders who book goods through the port but store nothing on site |
| Serviced / business-centre office | Small fitted unit | ~AED 35,000 to 60,000 | ~3 to 5 | Small back-office teams that want a turnkey space |
| Standard private office | From ~27 sqm, scaling up | From high-AED 30,000s into six figures | ~1 per 9 sqm | Growing trading and admin teams |
| Bonded warehouse (LIU) | From 313 sqm | From ~AED 125,000 | 15 to 20+ on larger units | Storage, distribution and light manufacturing |
The pattern matters more than any single price. You do not choose a JAFZA facility by floor area alone. You choose it by the goods you move and the team you need to sponsor, then confirm the unit that delivers both.
JAFZA flexi-desk: the entry point and what it costs
A flexi-desk, sometimes called a smart-desk, is a shared workstation at JAFZA One. It satisfies the physical-presence rule, gives you a business address and access to meeting rooms, and unlocks up to two visas. The cost sits at about AED 15,000 a year.
It is the right call for an importer or re-exporter who routes goods through Jebel Ali Port but keeps no stock on site. If you are weighing a desk against a private unit, the trade-offs are the same ones covered in our guide to a flexi desk in Dubai. The catch is simple: a flexi-desk cannot run real storage. Try to operate a warehouse business from a desk and you will be forced into a mid-year scramble for space.
JAFZA office space: from a 27 sqm unit to a full floor
Above the flexi-desk, JAFZA leases dedicated private offices. They sit mainly in the JAFZA One towers beside the zone's main spine, and they are handed over unfurnished so you can fit them to your own layout. JAFZA will lease anything from a single unit to a whole floor or building.
Dedicated offices start at around 26.88 sqm and scale up through roughly 50, 100, and 200 sqm and beyond. Useful reference points:
- A 27 sqm unit suits a two to three person trading desk.
- A 50 to 100 sqm unit fits a small back-office and accounts team.
- A 200 sqm unit supports a full SME office floor.
The number that matters more than the floorplate is the visa quota each size unlocks. Choose the office by the headcount you need to sponsor over the next 18 months, then confirm the unit. That order stops you re-leasing halfway through the year. Office mid-range rates move with availability, so treat them as indicative and check JAFZA's live leasing desk before signing.
Choose the Right JAFZA Facility Before You Sign a Lease
Our JAFZA specialists will compare your business requirements, expected headcount, storage needs, and budget to recommend the most cost-effective facility—whether that's a flexi-desk, private office, or bonded warehouse.
JAFZA warehouses: LIUs, logistics parks and cold storage
JAFZA has provided warehousing since 1980, and the stock is built for serious goods operations. Units are thermally insulated, fitted with office space, and carry a floor load of 5 tons per square metre, eaves heights of 6 to 12 metres, loading docks, ramps, and 24/7 CCTV. What you are paying for is bonded, port-adjacent space, not a flexi-desk add-on.
Light Industrial Units (LIUs)
LIUs are the small-business tier, from 313 sqm up to 619 sqm, with power from 10 kW to 74 kW. They start at roughly AED 125,000 a year, and fitted units in live listings reach AED 200,000 to 280,000 and beyond. A high-draw operation pays to upgrade the power allocation, which is not cheap.
Logistics parks and Jafza Gateway
For larger needs, multi-tenant parks scale up fast. Jafza Logistics Park Phase 2 offers 16 units and 46,112 sqm of leasable space. Jafza Gateway runs 187 units from 325 sqm to 2,475 sqm, with direct proximity to the port, airport, rail, and highways. Rates here move into the high six and seven figures a year.
Cold storage
Temperature-controlled units carry a clear premium over dry LIUs of the same size, for the insulation, power, and refrigeration load. They suit food, pharma, and agriculture operators, all of which already cluster in JAFZA.
How many visas does each JAFZA facility unlock?
This is the link competitors skip, and it is the one that decides your facility. In JAFZA the visa quota is welded to the unit you lease. No lease, no visas, and growth means a bigger unit.
| Facility | Indicative Visa Quota | Rule Applied |
|---|---|---|
| Flexi-desk | Up to 2 | Fixed by package |
| Private office | ~1 visa per 9 sqm | Area-based (27 sqm ≈ 3, 90 sqm ≈ 10, 200 sqm ≈ 22) |
| Warehouse (LIU+) | 15 to 20+ on ~500 sqm; 50+ on large plots | Case by case, assessed on operational need |
For offices the working rule is about one visa for every 9 sqm of leased area. Warehouses are more generous per head, because storage needs fewer people, so a 500 sqm unit at 15 to 20 visas works out near one visa per 25 to 33 sqm. The small-office and flexi-desk quotas are effectively fixed. The warehouse quota is where JAFZA assesses your real activity, so there is room to justify headcount tied to genuine operations. The full trade-off between a desk, an office, and a warehouse, Visa Quota: Flexi Desk vs Office vs Warehouse, is a separate piece.
The costs that ride on top of warehouse rent
Rent is the first line of a warehouse budget, not the whole of it. A few facility costs ride on top, and they are the ones storage tenants tend to forget.
- Refundable security deposit: commonly several months' rent, locked for the lease term.
- Service charges and common-area maintenance on the unit.
- Civil Defence fire-safety approval for any fit-out, racking, or mezzanine.
- Racking and shelving, a real capital cost the rent quote never includes.
- Power upgrades, since each LIU comes with a fixed kW allocation that a high-draw operation will outgrow.
One JAFZA-specific catch sits inside the lease: turning storage area into office space needs written consent and triggers extra rent, so you cannot quietly carve out an office inside your warehouse.
Those are the premises costs, the ones tied to the space itself. The licence, establishment card, visas, audit, and the full first-year company budget are a separate question, set out line by line in JAFZA Company Setup Cost 2026: Flexi-Desk to Warehouse.
The most common facility mistake, and a client who fixed it
The single most common mistake is overbuying space. A storage-heavy founder looks at a 600 sqm unit, imagines future growth, and signs, then runs at half capacity for two years while paying full rent, service charges, and a deposit on space they do not fill. In JAFZA, where a small LIU is already a six-figure commitment, oversizing by one tier can mean AED 80,000 to 120,000 a year of dead cost.
A regional distribution client came to us already leasing a 600 sqm LIU they had signed in a hurry. A year in, they were using barely half. Their stock was light but bulky, so the answer was height, not floor area. On renewal we moved them into a right-sized 313 sqm unit with proper high-bay racking that held the same inventory, and renegotiated the terms. The smaller unit plus racking cut their facility cost by well over AED 100,000 a year, with no loss of storage and the same bonded, port-side access. Right-sizing a JAFZA facility is one of the highest-return moves we make for a goods business, precisely because the rent is so significant.
JAFZA, Dubai South or DIP: which zone fits your goods
JAFZA is not always the cheapest place to store goods, and it should not be. Three things justify its premium, and they only apply to the right supply chain.
| Zone | Best For | Facility Note |
|---|---|---|
| JAFZA (Jebel Ali) | Sea freight and re-export through Jebel Ali Port | Customs-bonded, VAT designated zone, on-site customs, deep warehouse infrastructure. Premium justified if goods move by sea. |
| Dubai South (DWC) | Air cargo, aviation and e-commerce fulfilment | Beside Al Maktoum Airport, also a designated zone, often cheaper, but air-led not sea-led. |
| DIP (Dubai Investment Park) | Cheap, plain dry storage | Mainland mixed-use district. No free-zone bonded or designated-zone VAT benefit, no port-side customs. |
So the call is straightforward. If your supply chain runs through Jebel Ali Port by sea, the JAFZA premium pays for itself in bonded, quayside space. If it is air cargo, look at Dubai South. If you only need cheap dry storage with no bonded requirement, DIP is the lower-cost option. The full cross-zone comparison, Free Zone Warehouse in Dubai (JAFZA, DIP, DSO), is a separate piece.
How to choose your JAFZA facility
Decision checklist
Plan your JAFZA facility with Best Solution
We have leased every JAFZA tier and right-sized live warehouse leases that saved clients six figures a year. Tell us your goods volume and team plan, and we will model the facility, the visa quota, and the true first-year cost before you sign anything. Book a free consultation via +971 52 233 0011 (call or WhatsApp) or connect@best-solution.ae.
